History of CAD software

[6] In 1953, MIT researcher Douglas T. Ross saw the "interactive display equipment" being used by radar operators, believing it would be exactly what his SAGE-related data reduction group needed.

[8] These programs also enabled objects to be reproduced at will; it also was possible to change their orientation, linkage (flux, mechanical, lexical scoping), or scale.

[13] Based on his human factors cockpit drawings, William Fetter from Boeing coined the term "computer graphic" in 1960.

[citation needed] In his 1957 novel The Door into Summer, Robert A. Heinlein hinted at the possibility of a robotic Drafting Dan.

However, more substantial work on polynomial curves and sculptured surface was done by mathematician Paul de Casteljau from Citroen; Pierre Bézier from Renault; Steven Anson Coons from MIT; James Ferguson from Boeing; Carl de Boor, George David Birkhoff and Garibedian from GM in the 1960s; and W. Gordon and R. Riesenfeld from GM in the 1970s.

The development of the Sketchpad system at MIT[15][16] by Ivan Sutherland, who later created a graphics technology company with David Evans, was a turning point.

In 1963, under doctoral adviser Claude Shannon, Sutherland presented his PhD thesis paper, Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System, at a Joint Computer Conference.

One of the most influential events in the development of CAD was the founding of Manufacturing and Consulting Services Inc. (MCS) in 1971 by Patrick J. Hanratty,[18] who wrote the system Automated Drafting And Machining (ADAM), but more importantly supplied code to companies such as McDonnell Douglas (Unigraphics), Computervision (CADDS), Calma, Gerber, Autotrol, and Control Data.

The development of CAD software for personal desktop computers was the impetus for almost universal application in all areas of construction.

This subsequently 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.

[25] Free and open-source CAD software packages include FreeCAD,[26][27][28] BRL-CAD developed for the US Army,[29][30] QCAD Community Edition,[31] LibreCAD[32] and others.