OVERVIEW

CHAPTER SUMMARY

The final chapter of this book presents a recent history of CAD drawn from the pages of author Ralph Grabowski's upFront.eZine. This weekly e-newsletter has been published since May 1995.

Hence, this recent history of CAD starts in May 1995 and runs through April 2001, when this book was completed. All back issues of upFront.eZine are available at www.upfrontezine.com/welcome.htm.

Companies, products, and technologies are conceived, born, mature, wither, and die. DOS, dBase II, and Lotus 1-2-3 are examples of products that dominated their market, seemed sure to be preeminent forever, and are now almost forgotten.

Technology seems to zoom forward into new, amazing, unpredictable areas. But there are recurring patterns:

• Late delivery of software

• The hype surrounding a promising new technology

• The renaming of lackluster programs

• Takeovers and bankruptcy

• Intense innovation, when there is competition

• Ebb and flow of personalities between companies

RESOURCES

Joel Orr has put together a terse history of CAD since 1951 when EAI produced the first analog flatbed plotter at www.joelorr.com/caddhistory.htm.

A wonderful book recalling of the early days at Autodesk was written by co-founder John Walker. While his book, The Autodesk File, is no longer in print, you can download his manuscript in several formats from www.fourmilab.ch/autofile/.

Another brief, but more complete history of CAD from pre-1970 to 2000 is available at...