History

Designers have long used computers for their calculations. Digital computers were used in power system analysis or optimization as early as proto-"Whirlwind" in 1949. Circuit design theory, or power network methodology would be algebraic, symbolic, and often vector-based. Examples of problems being solved in the mid-1940s to 50s include, Servo motors controlled by generated pulse (1949), The digital computer with built-in compute operations to automatically co-ordinate transforms to compute radar related vectors (1951) and the essentially graphic mathematical process of forming a shape with a digital machine tool (1952). These were accomplished with the use of computer software. The man credited with coining the term CAD. Douglas T. Ross stated "As soon as I saw the interactive display equipment, [being used by radar operators 1953]. The designers of these very early computers built utility programs so that programmers could debug programs using flow charts on a display scope with logical switches that could be opened and closed during the debugging session. They found that they could create electronic symbols and geometric figures to be used to create simple circuit diagrams and flow charts. They made the pleasant discovery that an object once drawn could be reproduced at will, its orientation, Linkage [ flux, mechanical, lexical scoping ] or scale changed. This suggested numerous possibilities to them. It took ten years of interdisciplinary development work before SKETCHPAD sitting on evolving math libraries emerged from MIT`s labs. Additional developments were carried out in the 1960s within the aircraft, automotive, industrial control and electronics industries in the area of 3D surface construction, NC programming and design analysis, most of it independent of one another and often not publicly published until much later. Some of the mathematical description work on curves was developed in the early 1940s by Robert Issac Newton from Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Robert A. Heinlein in his 1957 novel The Door into Summer suggested the possibility of a robotic Drafting Dan. However, probably the most important work on polynomial curves and sculptured surface was done by Pierre Bézier, Paul de Casteljau (Citroen), Steven Anson Coons (MIT, Ford), James Ferguson (Boeing), Carl de Boor (GM), Birkhoff (GM) and Garibedian (GM) in the 1960s and W. Gordon (GM) and R. Riesenfeld in the 1970s.

The invention of the 3D CAD/CAM is attributed to a French engineer, Pierre Bezier (Arts et Métiers ParisTech, Renault). After his mathematical work concerning surfaces, he developed UNISURF, between 1966 and 1968, to ease the design of parts and tools for the automotive industry. Then, UNISURF became the working base for the following generations of CAD software.

It is argued that a turning point was the development of the SKETCHPAD system at MIT by Ivan Sutherland (who later created a graphics technology company with Dr. David Evans). The distinctive feature of SKETCHPAD was that it allowed the designer to interact with his computer graphically: the design can be fed into the computer by drawing on a CRT monitor with a light pen. Effectively, it was a prototype of graphical user interface, an indispensable feature of modern CAD. Sutherland presented his paper Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System in 1963 at a Joint Computer Conference having worked on it as his PhD thesis paper for a few years. Quoting,"For drawings where motion of the drawing, or analysis of a drawn problem is of value to the user, Sketchpad excels. For highly repetitive drawings or drawings where accuracy is required, Sketchpad is sufficiently faster than conventional techniques to be worthwhile. For drawings which merely communicate with shops, it is probably better to use conventional paper and pencil." Over time efforts would be directed toward the goal of having the designers drawings communicate not just with shops but with the shop tool itself. This goal would be a long time arriving.

The first commercial applications of CAD were in large companies in the automotive and aerospace industries, as well as in electronics. Only large corporations could afford the computers capable of performing the calculations. Notable company projects were, a joint project of GM (Dr. Patrick J.Hanratty) and IBM (Sam Matsa, Doug Ross`s MIT APT research assistant) to develop a prototype system for design engineers DAC-1 (Design Augmented by Computer) 1964; Lockheed projects; Bell GRAPHIC 1 and Renault.

One of the most influential events in the development of CAD was the founding of MCS (Manufacturing and Consulting Services Inc.) in 1971 by Dr. P. J. Hanratty, who wrote the system ADAM (Automated Drafting And Machining) but more importantly supplied code to companies such as McDonnell Douglas (Unigraphics), Computervision (CADDS), Calma, Gerber, Autotrol and Control Data.

As computers became more affordable, the application areas have gradually expanded. The development of CAD software for personal desktop computers was the impetus for almost universal application in all areas of construction.

Other key points in the 1960s and 1970s would be the foundation of CAD systems United Computing, Intergraph, IBM, Intergraph IGDS in 1974 (which led to Bentley Systems MicroStation in 1984).

CAD implementations have evolved dramatically since then. Initially, with 3D in the 1970s, it was typically limited to producing drawings similar to hand-drafted drawings. Advances in programming and computer hardware, notably solid modeling in the 1980s, have allowed more versatile applications of computers in design activities.

Key products for 1981 were the solid modelling packages - Romulus (ShapeData) and Uni-Solid (Unigraphics) based on PADL-2 and the release of the surface modeler CATIA (Dassault Systemes). Autodesk was founded 1982 by John Walker, which led to the 2D system AutoCAD. The next milestone was the release of Pro/ENGINEER in 1987, which heralded greater usage of feature-based modeling methods and parametric linking of the parameters of features. Also of importance to the development of CAD was the development of the B-rep solid modeling kernels (engines for manipulating geometrically and topologically consistent 3D objects) Parasolid (ShapeData) and ACIS (Spatial Technology Inc.) at the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s, both inspired by the work of Ian Braid. This led to the release of mid-range packages such as SolidWorks and TriSpective (later known as IRONCAD) in 1995, Solid Edge (then Intergraph) in 1996 and Autodesk Inventor in 1999. An independent geometric modeling kernel has been evolving in Russia since the 1990s. Nikolay Golovanov joined ASCON Company in 1994 from the Kolomna Engineering Design Bureau and began development of C3D – the geometric kernel of the Russian popular CAD system, KOMPAS-3D. Nowadays, C3D (C3D Labs) is the most valued Russian CAD product in the category of "components", i.e. products designed for integration in the end-user CAD systems of Russian and global vendors.