AutoCAD History

Here's wikipedia's entry on John Walker ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Walker_(programmer) ), a co-founder of AutoCAD:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoCAD

And here's some history on ACAD:

http://betaprograms.autodesk.com/history/area51.htm

One apocryphal, interesting note: John Walker had no experience with engineering or drafting before he got involved with AutoCAD.

Neat, geeky stuff and the technology is way fun to play with.

Questions, though, of course (and here I go on another anti-CAD rant, even though I think it's really quite nifty when used properly):

• Does the ability to easily make changes actually *cause* unnecessary changes to be made? [1]
• Are students now educated in manual drawing techniques or just shuffled into CAD training?
• Do the truly geeky (but engineering-challenged) people gravitate towards sysadmin positions whereby they can make things needlessly complicated?
• I am sure there are others, add some if you want

One personal example I have to share and maybe this belongs in the "problem exists between the chair and the keyboard" department. Electrostatic plotter. Want to plot a 22"x34" drawing. Process: Push button "A" five times, select option, then press button "B". Then, once that option appears, press button "A" again, wait 4 or 5 seconds, select "cut" and then wait until the machine slices the roll to produce your finished drawing on a paper surface that can only be written-on with special markers. Eff that, I use good oldfashioned scissors, machine be damned.

Some people like technology for the sake of technology (ooh, cool, I get to control a machine).

Paul

[1] Clueless management guy (probably an MBA) to CAD guy: "Just draw something that looks good, we'll fix it later. That's what CAD is for, right?" Received on Fri Mar 12 22:38:00 2004