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The History of CAD Software
It has taken just over 6 decades for the earliest attempts at a working CAD software product to evolve into the powerful, multifunctional design tools of today. The first steps towards a reliable programme were, albeit unconsciously, taken in the early ‘50s with the development of a digital computer able to transform the coordinates obtained from a radar screen into vectors and to form digital images. This accomplishment was ultimately to give rise to the concept of computer aided design. Upon observing this feat in 1953, it was one Douglas T. Ross that saw its potential and who was also accredited with coining the term that was to become the 3-letter acronym used to describe today’s advanced design products.
Work continued through the decade and into the sixties, its primary focus being the development of the mathematical algorithms required to form more complex geometric shapes and much of this effort was dedicated to streamlining the process of aircraft design. In a breakthrough that predated considerably the development of the graphical user interface, MIT produced the means to generate digitized shapes by drawing on a CRT screen with a light pen creating the closest thing to genuine CAD software which was dubbed Sketchpad.
This new digital drawing technology, however, was to remain well beyond the reach of the average designer for some time. Only the larger corporations such as those involved in the automotive and aerospace industries were able to invest in the bulky and astronomically expensive mainframe systems that were absolutely essential in order to run this package and others developed subsequently during the same period.
As the hardware gradually became a little more affordable, the number of developers offering design packages grew proportionately, but it was, however, only with the advent of the first desktop personal computers that the scope of the programmer began to achieve some of its present potential. Soon after, the race to modify the earlier mainframe applications was on and a number of PC-based CAD software products hit the shelves. Initially they were relatively limited to fairly basic operations and it was a relatively new company – Autodesk that, in 1982, was to be the first developer to come up with a product that was able to provide anything close to the level of complex functionality that the market was actually in need of. The product in question was known simply as AutoCAD.
Despite being a late starter in the race for product supremacy, it took just 4 more years before the new AutoCAD product, with its unique and much-needed curve fitting and polylines functions, was to gain the position of the most widely used product of its kind in the world. Transcribing those vital drawing functions to the PC operating system, at that time DOS, was just the first step in history marked by a flair for innovation that has seen it become the author of many important firsts and retaining its position as an industry leader.
From the launch of its first, solitary CAD software package, the company now has a product portfolio that extends to more than forty offerings and aimed at the needs of designers in a wide range of fields. These include animators involved in the development of TV advertising and cartoons, architects, civil and mechanical engineers as well as those involved in more specialised areas such as the design of industrial processing plants and consumer products and in infrastructure planning.
To address the multiple tasks that were once catered for by these separate products, Autodesk has developed a range of suites. Each of these includes the core drawing tools but has been further supplemented by integration through a single interface with those packages seen as necessary to provide those functions most used by the specialised end-users named above.
At The CAD Corporation we offer the full range of CAD software and the required Autodesk approved training.
