WorldCAD Access

History of (M)CAD

Dave Weisberg has released his history of CAD -- or, more correctly, history of (primarily) mechanical CAD. You can download a ZIP file that contains all chapters in PDF format here. I love reading history, and I am enjoying learning more of the roots of our industry.

Topics include:

• Computer-Aided Design Strong Roots at MIT
• Research in the Second Half of the 1960s
• Civil Engineering Software Development at MIT
• The First Commercial CAD System
• Applicon
• Autodesk and AutoCAD
• Auto-trol Technology
• Bentley Systems
• Calma 
• Computervision
• IBM/Lockheed/Dassault Systèmes
• Intergraph
• Patrick Hanratty and Manufacturing & Consulting Services
• Parametric Technology Corporation
• Structural Dynamics Research Corporation
• Solidworks
• Siemens PLM Software (UGS)
• Tom Lazear and VersaCAD
• Miscellaneous Companies
• Analysis Companies

The ebook is free. Mr Weisberg asks for a donation to the Cancer League of Colorado Foundation (via PayPal). Details here: www.cadhistory.net

CV for AEC

Rifling through my collection of mouse pads, I came across this one made by ComputerVision:

I never thought of ComputerVision being ideal for AEC [architecture, engineering, construction] software; the heavy duty piping belies the claim, as well.

As for being "for the 90s," well, CV was purchased by PTC in 1997.

AutoCAD v2.5

Autodesk showed AutoCAD v2.5 in June 1986 at the AEC Systems show in Chicago. I have Autodesk's brochure from back then, and it's interesting to read what was considered "new" in 22 years ago:

-- AutoCAD had more than 50,000 users.
-- Autodesk recommended 640KB RAM, but this release of AutoCAD also had Expanded/Extended Memory Support for computers running the then very expensive 80286 CPU.
-- regen-free zooms and pans.

You can see the list of new commands in the figure below. Autodesk cheated by making the ellipses from short polyline segments. Real ellipses would come later. Still, you can see why v2.5 was such a hit, because these basic commands had been missing 'til then.

(There is one typo: Table Menu is asterisked as a drawing command; it actually refers to the addition of a tablet overlay included in the box, which killed a number of small third-party developers who had been creating custom templates.)

As well, there were enhancements, such as these:

-- context-sensitive help.
-- Crossing and Previous selection modes
-- Polar option for the Array command
-- Mirror could now make mirrored copies at any angle

But not all new features have remained to this day. IGES im/export was later removed. As was the much disliked hardware lock (withdrawn a few months later with v2.52). Autodesk spun the unwanted addition this way:

AutoCAD 2.5 is execution-protected with a hardware lock. There are no power wires to trip over or take up outlet space; the hardware lock simply connects between your pointing device and computer.

At the time, Autodesk had hired a new marketing guy from IBM. As I recall the story, CADalyst (the only magazine dedicated to AutoCAD software at the time) could get a review copy of AutoCAD v2.5 with a 90-day invoice. After 90 days, we could return the software, or pay $2,500 (I think that was the price). Fortunately, saner heads prevailed: the new marketing guy was let go, and the 90-day invoice torn up.

One Story on How GIS Began

Today's Globe&Mail reports on how Roger Tomlinson of Canada birthed geographic information systems (GIS). The idea rose from the thought that computers might be able to derive map data more cheaply than doing the work by hand:

The project estimate for doing the job manually was about $8-million; Dr. Tomlinson thought it could be done for $3-million on a computer. "We eventually did it for about $10-million, but that's the way programming goes," he chuckled.

Full story here.

LighthouseAxon-Shapeware-VisioOmnigraffle

AppleInsider has an article explaining why Microsoft will be shipping Office 2008 for the Mac without some of the applications found in the Windows version. The paragraph regarding Visio's absence is a bit odd:

In 2000, Microsoft paid $1.3 billion to acquire Visio Corporation, which had delivered a clone of the Lighthouse Design Diagram! application for NeXTSTEP. The Omni Group delivered a similar product for the Mac called OmniGraffle, which Apple bundles on new Macs. Omni also offers a pro version, which can open and save Visio 2007 documents, leaving little reason to want a port of Visio in Mac Office.

I am not sure what to make of the first sentence, never having heard the "clone" claim before. According to Wikipedia:

Lighthouse Design Ltd. was an American software company that operated from 1989 to 1996. Lighthouse developed software for NeXT computers running the NeXTSTEP operating system.... In 1996, Lighthouse was acquired by Sun Microsystems.

Two of the first products developed at Lighthouse were Diagram! and Exploder. Diagram! was a drawing tool, in which objects are connected together using "smart links" to construct diagrams such as flow charts. Diagram was copied by Visio Corporation, who were acquired by Microsoft in 2000.

A PDF of Diagram!'s spec sheet is available here, dated 1995, and it does read like a Visio features list. (Visio first shipped in late 1992.)

In any case, the AppleInsider sentence could use a rewrite, since it reads like Visio delivered its "cloned' diagramming software for NeXT. Visio was Windows-only.

The other item that surprised me was OmniGraffle's apparent ability to open and save Visio documents. Because of the way Visio is structured (through a spreadsheet-like database called the "shapesheet), it is not possible to translate Visio .vsd files directly. Checking the Web site indicates that a workaround is indeed employed: OmniGraffle uses Visio's XML import and export, which is like using DXF to get at the data in a CAD drawing.

Adobe Also Celebrates25 Years

While Autodesk endures a $10 million lawsuit on its 25th Anniversary, Adobe also celebrates its Silver year. Pamela Pfiffner of Macworld tries to Imagine a World Without Adobe.

Unmentioned in Ms Pfiffner's mini-history is that Visio was founded by co-founders of Aldus (of PageMaker fame, which I continue to use to this day), which was then bought by Adobe.

Or that controversy of TrueType fonts, which Apple/Microsoft gave away free -- killing Adobe's market in over high-priced fonts, but making fonts universally available for the Rest of Us. Something for which Adobe's never forgiven Microsoft. Hey, you're gonna step on a few heads on your way to monopolism.

(My silver anniversary in this industry comes up in 2010.)

Five Corrections

Here's the errors I found in the statement, "Did you know that 25 years ago John Walker & 16 employees started Autodesk, with the sole goal of creating a CAD application for under $1,000?"

1. Employees -- they were equal partners.

2. Walker & 16 -- there were 16 in total, not 17.

3. sole goal -- AutoCAD was just one of several software applications the group launched, and the only one to become a success. The company itself is named after one of the other, unsuccessful applications -- an early version of today's office suite.

4. creating a CAD application -- they didn't create the CAD application; AutoCAD was originally Mike Riddle's MicroCAD, which he began work on in the late 1970s. They had a falling out, and Mr Riddle received royalties for several years, until Autodesk paid a lump sum to buy him out (as noted in an annual report from the late 1980s). Mr Riddle went on to form Evolution Computing, FastCAD, and EasyCAD.

5. under $1000 -- the original price was exactly $1,000, with add-ons upping the price. One of the $500 add-ons was for dimensioning, so the $1000-product was not useful for drafting. For a while, Autodesk increased the price of each release so that new buyers paid the same price as old buyers who had paid for the original + upgrades.

The Onset of SenilityAt Age Twenty-Five

How many errors can you find in this statement (made by Autodesk's external pr firm in an email to editors)?

Did you know that 25 years ago John Walker & 16 employees started Autodesk, with the sole goal of creating a CAD application for under $1,000?

I count five errors. (I'll list the ones I found here on Monday.)

I gentley suggest that whoever was responsible for drafting that sentence take the Remedial CAD History class at Autodesk U. In preparation, please read John Walker's recollections in The Autodesk File.

SmartSketchIs/Was

SmartSketch is the name of Intergraph's under-marketed 2D design software. (It used to be called Imagineer Technical.) Its "Jupiter" technology is also used in Solid Edge, which Intergraph sold to UGS. Which is why UGS has employees in Huntsville AL, the home of Intergraph.

Today I learned that one of the most common Internet formats was first called SmartSketch. SwitchedOn reports on Engaget:

...in 1993, a startup co-founded by one of the Mac's earliest third-party developers showed off a product called SmartSketch, later to be renamed FutureSplash Animator. The FutureSplash plug-in enabled Netscape Navigator to display vector graphics and even animations, garnering the attention of Macromedia. Over time, this plug-in, renamed Flash [and now owned by Adobe]...

For a brief time, Intergraph thought it hit the big time, when Microsoft agreed to include a version of Imagineer with a CD of bonus Windows software. But, 'twas not to be. The software faded into the background noise -- largely unknown now but hugely influential in the past.

Exxon Valdez

"Crude oil lingers from Exxon Valdez spill" is a headline in the Globe&Mail, and it reminded me of that time when I was on the staff of CADalyst magazine.

The Alaskan oil leak was a disaster in 1989, and it was CADalyst magazine's first big breaking story it would cover. Until then, the magazine published stories at a leisurely rate, as is common. Articles you read in this month's National Geographic were planned, written, photographed, and edited months, years before.

A reader tipped us off that AutoCAD was being used in the cleanup work. During the day, fishermen in their boats and oil cleanup crews on the shores located the position and extent of oil puddles. Arriving back in port in the evening, they reported this data, which was added to a copy of AutoCAD linked to a database program.

During the night, the database program generated maps in DXF format, which were displayed and plotted by AutoCAD on a large-format pen plotter. The plots were used to plan the crews' workday. Here's a list of the hardware and software used by coastal geologist Eric Gundlach:
* 20MHz Compaq 386 portable computer.
* Numonics 12"x18" digitizer.
* AutoCAD (Release 9, I am guessing).
* R:Base database software.
* GeoREF mapping software.

Assisting him was the State of Alaska using this hardware:
* 20MHz Compaq Deskpro 386 with 300MB hard drive.
* HP Laserjet II for A-size plots.
* CalComp 1043GT pen plotter for E-size maps.

Later, Exxon also set up an AutoCAD station to help with the mapping effort.

In the article I wrote at that time, "Alaskan Oil Spill" (July'89), I noted that after one month, the 2,900 workers had cleaned one mile of beach; the spill affected a thousand miles of coastline.

Anyhow, there was high excitement on the editorial side of the office, as phone calls were made, interviews held, and we waited for photographs and sample maps to arrive in the mail.

Not e-mail; postal mail. It is hard to believe that we could put out a computer magazine before even the fax machine came into common use, let alone email!