AUGIWorld Magazine November/December 2007

Murphy: When you’ve been around as long as you and I have, Shaan, we know some things don’t work as well as they used to. How is that software you’ve acquired holding up? Hurley: Well, most of it was no longer of any use because the magnetic diskettes had faded. Fortunately, the Autodesk gods were smiling on me because I did find a few good samples that I backed up for safekeeping. As time went by and news of my quest spread far and wide, I got hold of most releases and was able to run them on a 386 system or in a virtual machine image. Murphy: I wish I could see some of these items. It would be a blast from the past! Hurley: Funny you should mention that. I will be posting images of the memorabilia on my blog (http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_ the_lines/) and image gallery (http://www.flickr. com/photos/btl/sets/72157600140924927/). For those true Autodesk and AutoCAD geeks, there will be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to view the actual items at Autodesk University this year. This will be an experience not to be missed! Murphy: Can you tell me what the original founders of Autodesk had in mind when they developed AutoCAD? Hurley: John Walker was the primary founder. He knew there would be a boatload of PCs coming into the market, and realized that there was no software to run on them. John decided to develop a series of applications with the hope that at least one that would take root. The very first Autodesk application was actually similar to a contact manager application—quite different from the Autodesk applications that we know and love! At that time, Marinchip was making the CPU boards. One of the Marinchip programmers, Mike Riddle, wrote an assembly language code for a limited geometry-creation program, not a full-fledged CAD application, but he was on the right track. John purchased the application and hired Mike. Then he set a few of his top software developers to work. Dan Drake and Greg Lutz ported what would be AutoCAD-86 to the DOS platform and Victor 9000, while John worked on the CP/M80 version of AutoCAD-80. And the rest is history! Murphy: Well, you would know that better than anyone, Shaan. How did the industry react to the unveiling of AutoCAD? Hurley: At the 1982 West Coast Computer Fair, Autodesk revealed its suite 14 of products to an unsuspecting world. Autodesk was pleasantly surprised by the interest and questions that this CAD application generated. Later in the same year, they showed AutoCAD at COMDEX. They had arrived in the CAD industry with a bang! Today, 25 years later, AutoCAD is still the reigning champion in design software. It is mind boggling when you realize that much of what you see today around you was most likely designed in CAD— amazing things from skyscrapers to circuit boards, from sports stadiums to toys, and even clothes patterns or surfboards. The list is just endless. Murphy: Do you think it was a case of being in the right place at the right time, or was the industry really ready for a desktop CAD solution? Hurley: As John Walker explains, there are not too many opportunities this golden. But he didn’t set out to enter the CAD business; it found him. w w w. A U G I . c o m http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/btl/sets/72157600140924927/ http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/btl/sets/72157600140924927/ http://www.AUGI.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AUGIWorld Magazine November/December 2007

AUGIWorld Magazine November/December 2007 Table of Contents The CAD Manager Education & Training Finance Training Google Earth: Now Showing in AutoCAD Civil 3D Get Your Input Here A Good First Impression, Part 2 Share and Share Alike Who's Using Revit MEP? Ready… Get Set… Properties! On the Back Page: The Brazilian Model

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