Revit LT or Revit: Which One Does Your Practice Need?
Revit LT costs a little under a quarter of what Revit costs, and it comes with AutoCAD LT thrown in. For a sole practitioner that is a bargain; for a practice of three it is a purchase that gets repeated within the year. This guide is written by Modena Technologies, Africa's only Autodesk Platinum Partner and an Autodesk Authorised Training Centre in Cape Town. We sell both, at Autodesk's prices, so we earn more when you buy Revit and we would still rather you bought the right one.
The short version. Revit LT is real Revit: the same building model, the same views, schedules and sheets, the same RVT file that opens in either product. What it leaves out is everything to do with working together and everything that extends the product: no worksharing, no point clouds, no add-ins or Dynamo, no in-product rendering, no MEP systems, no structural analysis. If one person will be alone in the model and the deliverables are drawings, LT is the right buy. The moment a second person needs to be in the same model, or a client sends a laser scan, or the practice wants an add-in, it has to be Revit, and buying LT first means buying twice.
Revit LT is sold only as the AutoCAD Revit LT Suite, which bundles it with AutoCAD LT. The rest of this guide shows the boundary, who sits on which side of it, the arithmetic in relative terms (current prices are on the suite and Revit product pages) and how to change your mind later.
In this guide
What LT leaves out · Who should buy Revit LT · Who needs full Revit · The arithmetic · Changing later · How Modena helps · FAQ
What Revit LT leaves out
The left column is in both products and it is most of Revit. The right column is Revit only, and every item on it is either about several people working on one model, about bringing outside data in, or about extending the product.
| In both Revit LT and Revit | Full Revit only |
|---|---|
| The same building model: walls, floors, roofs, ceilings, doors, windows, stairs, railings, rooms and areas | Worksharing: two or more people in one model, with worksets, Revit Server and cloud co-authoring |
| The same views, sheets, schedules, tags, dimensions and annotation; the same RVT file | Point clouds from laser scanning and scan-to-mesh |
| Phasing, design options, area plans and basic site tools | Add-ins from the Autodesk App Store and third parties, macros, and Dynamo automation |
| Linking CAD files and other Revit models; IFC import, link and export; PDF import and export; DWG and DXF export | In-product rendering and decals (LT has cloud rendering only) |
| Structural walls, slabs, columns, beams and braces | Reinforcement, trusses, steel connections, slanted columns, beam systems and the structural analytical model |
| Viewing and simple editing of ducts, pipes and cable trays that someone else modelled; MEP schedules | Creating MEP systems: ducts, pipes, cable trays, circuits and panel schedules |
| Single-user cloud models, shared views for client mark-up, realistic visual styles and materials | Shared and acquired coordinates with linked models, massing studies, in-place families beyond walls, view filters outside view templates, generative design |
The one most people miss. Revit LT cannot take part in a workshared model. That is not a feature you grow into; it is the difference between a product for one person and a product for a team. A practice that buys three LT seats expecting the three people to share a project discovers on the first project that they cannot, and the three LT seats become three Revit seats at the next renewal, with the first year's money spent on the wrong thing.
Who should buy Revit LT
A sole practitioner who models and documents alone. A small practice where projects are small enough for one person to carry each model from start to finish, and where nobody needs to open a colleague's model while the colleague is in it. An architectural technologist producing drawings from a design that arrives as a 2D brief. A practice that is 2D in AutoCAD today and wants Revit on the machine for the first client who asks for a model, without committing to a full seat; the suite gives them AutoCAD LT for the day job and Revit LT for the first project. And anyone whose deliverables are drawings and PDFs rather than coordinated models for consultants.
Revit LT is not a training edition or a cut-down interface. The modelling, documentation and scheduling tools are the full ones, and a person trained on Revit works in LT without noticing the difference until they reach for something on the right-hand list.
Who needs full Revit
Four things settle it. Work through them for each person, because a practice can mix suite seats and Revit seats freely.
- 1Will two or more people ever need to work in the same model at the same time, or will you co-author with consultants in the cloud? Yes: Revit. This alone describes most practices of three or more.
- 2Will you work from laser scans or point clouds, whether your own or a surveyor's? Yes: Revit.
- 3Do you need add-ins, Dynamo scripts or macros, for example for sheet set-up, parameter management, energy analysis or a manufacturer's library? Yes: Revit.
- 4Will you model building services or do structural analysis and reinforcement, render inside the product, or need shared coordinates across linked models? Yes: Revit. No to all four: the AutoCAD Revit LT Suite does the job.
Structural and services engineers are a short case. LT places beams and columns and can look at ducts and pipes that someone else modelled, but it cannot design systems or run analysis, so an engineering practice needs Revit, and usually the AEC Collection alongside it for Robot or Navisworks. Our collection guide covers that arithmetic.
One thing LT does not leave out is IFC. Revit LT has certified IFC import and export, the same as Revit: it exports IFC4 and IFC2x3, and opens or links older IFC files and links IFC4. So an IFC deliverable on its own does not force full Revit. What forces it is the coordination that usually comes with IFC on larger projects: shared coordinates across linked models, co-authoring in the cloud and clash detection in Navisworks.
The arithmetic, in relative terms
On our store today the AutoCAD Revit LT Suite costs a little under a quarter of a Revit subscription, and the suite includes AutoCAD LT. So for a practice that also drafts in 2D, the honest comparison is the suite against Revit plus AutoCAD LT, and on that comparison the suite is about a fifth of the price. The AEC Collection, which bundles Revit with AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Navisworks and more, costs about 1.2 times Revit, which puts the suite at roughly a fifth of the collection too.
Put the other way round, one Revit seat costs about as much as four suite seats. That is the number that tempts a three-person practice into three LT seats, and it is the wrong number to use, because the three people cannot share a model. The right comparison for that practice is three Revit seats against three LT seats plus a re-purchase at renewal plus a year of working around the limit. For a sole practitioner the arithmetic is the other way: a full Revit seat is money spent on collaboration features that nobody in the office will ever use.
Both the suite and Revit are sold on one-year and three-year terms. Three years costs the same per year as one; what it buys is a fixed price for the term. If you are unsure whether you will outgrow LT within the term, stay on one year.
Changing your mind later
The files are the same, so moving from LT to Revit is painless: the seat changes at renewal, the models open as they are, and nothing is redrawn. Moving the other way is also possible, with the caveat that a model that used Revit-only features, worksets in particular, has to be tidied first. So if you are a single person and unsure, start on the suite and watch for the first thing you cannot do; it is cheaper than the reverse. If you are a practice and unsure, start on Revit, because the first thing you cannot do will be the first project with two people on it, and it will arrive in the first month. Our AutoCAD vs AutoCAD LT guide makes the same point about the 2D side, where the switch is just as easy.
How Modena helps
Before a quote we will ask who works on what, how many people touch a model and what your clients ask for, and recommend the suite, Revit, the collection or a mix with the reasoning shown. The Revit Architecture Fundamentals course is taught on full Revit and everything in it applies to LT; we run it in Cape Town and live online, and the Revit training range goes on from there. We also configure Revit templates to your standards, which works identically in both products. If you are moving from AutoCAD, our AutoCAD to Revit guide covers the rest of that decision, and the Revit workstation guide covers the hardware, which is the same for both.
Ask us which one fits your practice See the AutoCAD Revit LT Suite
Frequently asked questions
Can Revit LT open files made in full Revit?
Yes. Both products use the same RVT file and the same release cycle, and a model moves between them without conversion. The exception is a workshared model: LT cannot take part in worksharing, so a central model has to be detached and saved as a single-user file before LT can work on it.
Can two people work on one model with Revit LT?
No. Worksharing, worksets, Revit Server and cloud co-authoring are all full Revit. Two LT users can split a project into separate linked models, which works for a house and a garage and fails for anything that needs coordinating, but they cannot be in one model together.
Can we start on Revit LT and move to Revit later?
Yes, and for a single person it is the sensible default. The seat changes at renewal and the files, templates and training carry over unchanged. For a practice of three or more we recommend starting on Revit, because the move will be forced by the first shared project rather than chosen.
Does Revit LT include AutoCAD?
It includes AutoCAD LT. Revit LT is only sold as the AutoCAD Revit LT Suite, so every suite seat has 2D drafting alongside the Revit model. Full AutoCAD, with 3D and the specialised toolsets, is not included; our AutoCAD vs AutoCAD LT guide covers when that matters.
Can Revit LT render?
Not inside the product. It has the same realistic visual styles and materials as Revit for views and PDFs, and it can send a view to Autodesk's cloud rendering service. In-product rendering, decals and lighting analysis need full Revit. Many LT users render in Twinmotion or Enscape instead, both of which need a separate licence.
Is Revit LT enough for a small practice that sends models to consultants?
Often, yes, provided the practice is the only author of its model and the consultants link it rather than co-author it. It becomes a problem when the consultants expect shared coordinates, clash detection or a cloud model everyone works in; at that point the practice needs Revit.
Next step
If you are one person, buy the suite and keep an eye on the four questions above. If you are a practice, send us a note on how many people model, what you deliver and what your clients ask for, and we will come back with a seat mix and the reasoning. If you already subscribe, we can review the mix against Autodesk's usage report before your next renewal.
This guide is part of our software buyer guides, which cover the Autodesk decisions we are asked about most.
