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Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

shaan.hurley — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 23:18:35 GMT

This Autodesk Community Conversation discussed and celebrated Autodesk's 40 years as of January 30, 2022.

We shared stories, photos, and more.

Thank you to everyone that was able to attend!

Special Guests:
Kean Walmsley of Autodesk
Misha Belilovskiy of Autodesk
Robert Burns aka Retrocad

Here is the recorded session:

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

gothitis — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 22:11:06 GMT

Computer Aided Design - YouTube

Old video from my time as a student at CCBC (Community College of Baltimore County) taking their CAD courses back in 2010. The wild part is, 10 years later, I was brought in as an adjunct instructor and I get to encourage students who have an interest in CAD, just like myself.

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

fredhollman — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 20:52:44 GMT

Took my 1st Computer Course in 1961, when the Magazines were predicting Drafting was going to be done digitally.

Took 20 years to get started and another 20 years for Machines, software and cost to come together. Workflow has improved but one still has to compose before you can draw. Staying abreast of the latest Versions and dealing with glitches with workarounds is very time consuming. The only real gain is not having to hand deliver the Drawings and loosing face to face contact. Loading up the Drawings with Standard Details and Specifications may look good but doesn't fool the Contractors and make them happy. After all, the Drawing is only lines on a paper or Pad.

For a while, we had the Tail wagging the Dog. As an Engineer, not knowing how the create or change a Drawing, the Draftsman was literally in charge. Now, the Graduate Engineer will probably draft his own Project, meaning the Draftsperson Status may go by way of the Horse and Buggy. In fact, all new Construction may be done from the computer memory and only tweaked by a Draftsperson.

All I can say for sure, is when you take a Job, don't unpack your Bag.

Fred Hollman, PE

Consulting Engineer

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

gothitis — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 21:49:08 GMT

Here is the link to the video: CCBC CAD Program

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

caddude1 — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 16:59:41 GMT

My first exposure to AutoCAD was in the very early 80's. I had occasion to work on R2000 with someone last year..... Talk about a culture shock! So much has changed!

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

tony1978 — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 22:52:37 GMT

My first taste of Autodesk products was in the USAF. I want to say my high school may have a CAD class but cant be certain. We were using R12 in 1997.

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

davefosz — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 05:44:33 GMT

I started using AutoCAD R10 as student in the 90's, then became CAD teacher assistant for R12. Render used to take a lot of time and AutoLISP was a great tool to have faster and better drawings.

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

David_W_Koch — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 13:14:47 GMT

In the Fall of 1986, I was part of the first group from my firm that was sent out for AutoCAD training, on Version 2.5. Screen menu, digitizing tablets (what's a mouse?) and all sorts of good fun.

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

didier_lourdelle — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 15:28:59 GMT

My first AutoCAD 2.52 in 1988 ou 89 dos !

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

RDeZen — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 15:32:09 GMT

Hi comunity my first Autocad 1.17.B 1984

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

rushabhthakkar_910 — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 15:35:12 GMT

I have been using Autodesk Software's since 4+ Years.. And my First software was AutoCAD. And since than, I have been exploring various software's like Fusion 360 (Since 2.5+ Years), Inventor (Since 2+ Years), Maya (Currently Exploring, etc..

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

mhoodLT6NU — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 15:48:02 GMT

WOW 40 years! Congrats Autodesk!

I started my Autodesk journey with AutoCAD Release 9, sometime in the early-to-mid 90s, got an AA and certificate in CAD Design in 1998. I started my first job in 1996, designing model trains, parts, and accessories. The most challenging part of that job was drawing a person and a giraffe in isometric view! I also did a brief stint in furniture design during the same time frame, until 15 years ago, when I started Civil design at my current company. Today, I am a design software support agent and work with others to help solve their problems the best that I can. I run an internal Civil 3D user group at my firm (JMT).

I remember the early days of my career, being either the only female or one of two in the classroom. It has been great to see more women enter the field over the years. I have met lots of great people and experts through Autodesk University, Autodesk Group Network, and various user groups and I am happy to call them friends and colleagues.

It has been great to see the progression of the technology since then… my first foray into AutoCAD was DOS-based, and I blocked all that out once the Windows version came along. It has also been fun to dabble in Revit, Civil 3D, and see more and more metadata built into the software. I wonder where things will be 10 years from now… and cannot wait to find out!

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

shaan.hurley — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 15:54:22 GMT

From Autodesk founder, John Walker.

"

https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/autodesk-fortieth-anniversary-events-in-2022/750

I don't really have anything more to say about “then and now” than I've already written in The Autodesk File. To get a flavour of software development in 1982, I recommend the AutoCAD-80 Development Log:

https://www.fourmilab.ch/autofile/e5/?chapter=chapter2_14

“where it becomes clear that the work was about 40% actually designing features and implementing them and 60% trying to make everything fit into 64 Kb of memory. I vaguely remember that at the time it was retired the 8080 CP/M version of AutoCAD had something like 18 overlays that were loaded from floppy disc to perform various functions.”

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

becker.p6S3EH — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 16:29:43 GMT

My foray into mechanical drafting started using CADKEY on some 286 machines in college. At that time it was a great privilege to be able to use the I-DEAS Solid modeling software on the SUN Microsystems SPARC 5's in the computer lab. I never reached the level of classes that required the use of the AutoCAD software at school for drafting, as most of my drafting classes were pretty basic.

Starting back into drafting 25 years later using ACADE (v17) to do electrical circuit and control panel layout design was quite a leap. I have also been involved in using some other AUTODESK products to do basic water, sewer, and electric utility mapping for the local municipal utility company. The improvements made over the years to computer aided design has been remarkable.

It is still humbling though, to look at some of my grandfather's drawings done on vellum rolls. Coordinating all of those layers truly was an art. I was gifted his drafting set when he passed. I haven't done much with it, but am honored that I was given the opportunity to preserve a little part of that moment in time. I am grateful that I learned mechanical drafting at time when both technologies were still considered mainstream...

Cheers!

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

fredhollman — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 16:32:09 GMT

The time will pass and so will your enthusiasm - enjoy the moment.

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

fredhollman — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 16:42:09 GMT

Thank you for justifying having skipped the 80's and 90"s AutoCAD.

Fred Hollman

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

shaan.hurley — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 19:07:54 GMT

Thank you everyone for attending. I will post the recording in the next few days and some fun awards for those that posted in the #ADSK40 Twitter threads.

Here is the Solar DWG as promised. You can download the drawing.
https://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2011/02/the-solar-system-drawn-to-scale-in-autocad-dwg-scale-is-everything.html

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

gothitis — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 19:09:46 GMT

Excited!

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

bc.chiquito — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 19:28:19 GMT

I've had so many turns in my career and Autodesk has always been part of the journey, I've been working with the software for around 17 years, even before becoming an architect, and I'm proud to be part of the community and an Expert Elite Member.

¡Long live the king! 🖤

Happy 40th Anniversay Autodesk

Re: Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

shaan.hurley — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 17:10:50 GMT

If you enjoyed Robert Burns AutoCAD 1.2 live drawing, check out his Youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/c/retrocad