Milestones in this research include Versprille’s NURBS invention, which formed the basis for modern 3D curve and surface modeling, and the development of PADL (Part and Assembly Description Language) by Grayer, Lang and Braid. The start of the 1970s saw research slowly turn from 2D towards 3D. In this video we’re introduced to Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad While it never became commercially available, it did pave the way for later CAD software. More developments arose in the 1960s, including the first digitizer from Auto-trol, and DAC-1, the first production interactive graphics manufacturing system.
The program overall was primitive in design by today’s standards, but it was highly complex for its time. Users could interact with the program through a screen, a light pen to draft and a set of buttons to set parameters or constraints. Not long after, Ivan Sutherland developed Sketchpad in 1963 as part of his thesis at MIT-titled ‘Sketchpad, A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System’.
In fact, some industry analysts estimate that 70% of all 3D mechanical CAD/CAM systems available today can trace their roots back to Hanratty’s original code. Patrick Hanratty, “the father of CAD/CAM”, developed PRONTO (Program for Numerical Tooling Operations) the first CNC programming system, in 1957. Scan2CAD has put together a complete guide covering the beginnings of CAD in the 1950s, how CAD evolved after 1982, and what the future might hold for CAD.ĭuring World War II, computing underwent a lot of development. If, however, you’re not familiar with the history of CAD, you’re in luck. As such, CAD has had a long and rich history that spans back decades. Cheers.While it might be tempting to think of Computer Aided Design as a relatively recent innovation, most CAD programs we use today can actually be traced back to work begun over 50 years ago. And it’s great to see a program like FreeCAD developing at an accelerated pace in recent years.ĭo share your thoughts with us using the comments section below and don’t forget to share this article. That being said, I highly respect the work that has been put in by the developers of the above-listed software.
Similarly, if you’re an engineering student with CAD on your curriculum, I’d recommend that you use the software that your college prescribes (AutoCAD, SolidEdge, Catia), which generally tends to run on Windows only.Īnd for advanced professionals, these tools are simply not up to the mark when we’re talking about industry standards.įor those of you thinking about running AutoCAD in WINE, although some older versions of AutoCAD can be installed on WINE, they simply do not perform, with glitches and crashes ruining the experience. What you do with this information is up to you.Īlthough gaming on Linux has picked up, I always tell my hardcore gaming friends to stick to Windows. Then there’s LeoCAD, which is a CAD program where you use LEGO blocks to build stuff.
SolveSpace is another open-source project worth mentioning.With a huge growth in cloud computing technologies, cloud CAD solutions like OnShape have been getting more popular each day.