The trick is to learn how to make LDT work. Bob, if I send you one of my drawings, you will see the spot elevations. Guaranteed.
OK, let's get into this discussion. My LDD3 screams after I first open it. I don't have the tons of custom lisp thingies that I'm sure Mark has added to his program. Mark's set up probaly only requires him to open LDD and then everything happens automatically. He's just impatient you know.
If your clients do not have LDT, then you must take special steps to make sure that the contours and spot shots show up. LDT uses AEC objects. Plain Jane ACAD and R14, etc don't, so you must adjust. It's a habit that when I have edited my contours, I explode them and then use the label routine. The file does not baloon to a mega dwg file. I also prefer to show my spot shots in "italic" ( read that as a 15degree obliqueing angle) and I use the decimal point to locate the shot on the ground instead of that nasty "x" thing. (Old CofE standard.) So I import the elevation, explode it, change it to romans style and add a 15 degree oblique. Thus not one of my clients has sent my drawings back crying that the contours don't show up. This happens regularly to the other guys in my office that don't want to take these steps.
Next thing, do you already know how to do the things that LDT does? Do you know how to contour? Do you know how to build a surface ? Do you know how to draw a line by direcrion using bearings, azimuths or deflection angles? LDT does this but it does not do so automatically. If you are not already a Land Development cad techie then you will go into brain lock. If you are a trained land development tech, you will wonder how you ever got along without it. I cannot even imagine doing a topo map in plain jane AutoCad.
So if you must jump in go to agtcad.com and look at the training cd's. They are geat, but pricey. About the same as a good week long training session, except with them you can train and retrain to your hearts content. I've just about worn mine out.