Autodesk Turns 40 Years Young

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!

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. 

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.

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.

My first AutoCAD 2.52 in 1988 ou 89 dos !

Didier Lourdelle Consultant, Formateur & Développeur CAO/DAO
Expertises : AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD Electrical
Langages : VB.NET, Visual LISP, VBA, Diesel (Direct Interpretively Evaluated String Expression Language)
Base de données relationnelle : Microsoft Access, SQL Server, MySQL
Environnements de développement : Microsoft Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Editeur Visual LISP
Utilisations :AutoCAD MAP, Civil 3D, AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD MEP, Plant 3D, Civil 3D, RasterDesign, VehicleTracking, Autodesk Recap, Fusion 360, NavisWorks, Revit

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.. 

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!

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.”

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!

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-...

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

Brenda Chiquito - Website | LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter
Arquitecta, Interiorista, Artista CGI, Instructora LinkedIn Learning | CDMX, México.

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