AutoCAD is turning 25! Crikey, I must be getting old as remember most of it!
We first used AutoCAD R2.something at Tech. I say “we” as there were few CAD PC’s so several of students used one together. My first CAD drawing was a group effort, a side elevation of a motor scooter project which took us several weeks! There was limited access to slow, if top spec for their day, machines. The desire to draw curves (this was just 2D not 3D) and fill them with hatch patterns plus the “first encounter with AutoCAD factor” meant it was a long process.
I still remember “Beth”, can’t remember her surname, who came to New Zealand from Autodesk to spread the AutoCAD word. She was amused, or maybe bewildered, by design students trying to do things real draftsmen wouldn’t attempt. I think it resulted in a few calls back to the US for updates or test code. Thinking back, I wonder where Beth is now & regret not having that .dwg other than as a print…
Then there was a gap until R9 before I encountered AutoCAD again. For most of those computer free years it was literally back to the drawing board but since then it’s been all digital. My own first CAD PC is a metre away as I type this and still runs fine. Not that there’s much use for a 486 dx33 with 8mb ram which cost $5150.25 (in 1993).
It’s a coincidence The Warehouse, my employer, is also 25 later this year. They didn’t use AutoCAD internally until sometime in early/mid ‘90’s. I’ve been using it, or AutoCAD based software, there since 1997! Now I do feel old…
Celebrating 25 years of AutoCAD - www.autodesk.com/autocad25
Via BTL