Excel vs Calc

[mepeng]

Hello,
I am a developer for an engineering company that uses AutoCAD LT and excel mainly. I have become more and more unpleased with the limitations that excel 2003 has. I just ran into today that I can only have 2050 Conditional formatted cells in an entire workbook. This is a big limitation for some of the projects that we have underway because of the benefits of conditional formatting. I have recently started using Writer for my documents and am wondering how excel compares to Calc. Are there any limitations on the number of Conditional Formatted cells that you can have in one work book?

Another question I have has to do with open Office's Calc's integration into AutoCAD. What are the limitations on that functionality (if there are any)?

Can I please get some advice on these questions?

Thank you.

[Villeroy]

No such limit on conditionally formatted cells and no integration with whatever 3rd-party software.
Excel is not integrated into AutoCad. AutoCad is integrated into Excel. They could simply generate ODF files independent from any office beeing installed or not. Unfortunately software companies simply assume MS software with an interface to generate the documents.

[mepeng]

"no integration with whatever 3rd-party software." Meaning that there are no plans to have Calc work in AutoCad?

[mepeng]

So the company that is holding back with better Calc usability in AutoCAD is not OpenOffice, but AutoDesk. Thank you for the information. Are there any Major functions that are left out on purpose (or what not) from Calc that excel has?

[Villeroy]

Depends on what you mean with "major". When it comes to formatting, OOo is superior, some complex (or clumsy, if you know what I mean) Excel formulas are not supported. There is always a better equivalent if you rethink the formula syntax.