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The History of Computer-Aided Design
A broad timeline of computer-aided design, from 1960s research labs and large manufacturers to 2D drafting and 3D modeling on desktop personal computers.
Software and Applications
Engineering Software
Computers as tools for design, simulation and making things.
The Development of the First Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) Software
How numerical control programming developed in the 1950s and 1960s, with several groups sharing credit for the first languages that told machine tools what to cut.
The Development of the First Computer-Assisted Design (CAD) Software
Traces the first research and commercial drafting programs of the 1960s and explains why several groups developed CAD software in parallel without one clear winner.
The Early Days of Computer Simulation: A Computing Pioneer
Simulation as a general method, from wartime calculations and Monte Carlo ideas to early models of weather, traffic and economies, with its limits explained.
The Early Days of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) Software
How 1960s research on drawing with a computer and light pen led to interactive drafting systems used by large manufacturers, and what that work was like.
The Early Days of Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) Software
How computers began to analyze stress, heat and fluid flow in engineering designs, with a plain explanation of what simulation can and cannot predict.
The Early Days of Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE): A Computing Pioneer
How engineers began running stress, flow and circuit analysis programs on computers in the 1950s and 1960s to test designs before building them.
The Early Days of Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) Software
How machine tool control moved from tape-driven machines to software linked with design files, and what that shift meant for factory work and skills.
Related topics
More in software and applications
Graphics and Games Pictures, animation, games and virtual worlds made by computers. Business Software How firms came to track customers, money and marketing with computers. Learning and Language Computers used for teaching and translating. Sound and Speech Computers making music and understanding spoken words. Programming Languages How people came to write instructions for machines, and why so many languages exist. Video Game History Themes in the history of games: consoles, home coders, genres and sound.