I do understand why there are many differences between the lite and the full version of Revit, but I never understood why the LT version as to limit the end users to be able to create the concept that they want to build!
Please add the features listed here to Revit LT so that small business or self-employed designers or architects can use Revit LT for their projects...
I just took a survey of the reasons I'm not willing to renew my Revit LT license and I consider that it would be nice to share it to others :
I used "full" Revit for many years in big architecture companies and I have always been frustrated with Revit LT by the fact that it's not because I now have a small business (less than 5 employees), that I have to be limited by some ESSENTIALS functions like creating stairs by sketches, creating conceptual masses, be able to use the design options features or at least be able to COLLABORATE in a central model with some teammates. IT'S NOT BECAUSE WE'RE SMALL BUSINESS THAT WE DON'T CREATE OR COLLABORATE AND THAT WE ARE ALONE IN OUR BASEMENT!!
Maybe it's too far away from the Autodesk reality but when you are in a small business, the profit margin and the working capital are not as big as it could be when you have more than 10 employees. You have to be really careful with your expenses... More and more freelancers would like to work for different companies but just to be able to collaborate with them, they have to pay more than 4 times the price of a RevitLT license and that JUST FOR ONE FEATURE THAT THEY REALLY NEED...
I know many self-employed interior designers that WOULD LOVE to switch from AutoCad to Revit, but when you're an interior designer you NEED to be able to create different shapes of stairs or different shapes of masses in a project for many reasons. They are all working with AutoCad LT, because, first of all they don't have the money to pay more and second it's not because they can't work in 3D or use some specific features of the full AutoCad that they are limited in what they can create for their clients.
The biggest disappointment with REVIT LT, is that we're limited by the tool to be able to create nice project or just the project that our client needs OR EVEN JUST TO BE ABLE TO REPRESENT THE EXISTING PARTS OF A PROJECT!!
Normally, a design or a concept should not have to be limited by the tools the designer or the architect is working with. Sometimes, I have to modify or transform small houses, but I can't do them in Revit LT just because the existing project have some components that I can't do in Revit LT. Because I need the full version of Revit just to be able to create stairs that have been built 50 years ago and that I have to keep in my project I would need a license that cost me more than 4 times the price of the Lite version!!
It's completely irrational!!
Architecture and interior design startups can't afford a 3000$/user/year tools in their 5 to 10 first years of operation and when you consider that they can do anything they want to create with AutoCad LT at 500$/user/year plus a free license of SketchUp (or a one time 700$ fees if they need a pro license), I sincerely think that Autodesk is one of the major issue in North America of the fact that it's really hard to survive in those kinds of business when you're trying to introduce that kind of software technologies.