Introduction of Computer Aided Design (CAD)

Computer-aided design (CAD), also known as computer-aided design and drafting (CAD) is the use of computer systems to assist in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. Computer-aided drafting describes the process of creating a technical drawing with the use of computer software. CAD software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve communications through documentation, and to create a database for manufacturing. CAD output is often in the form of electronic files for print or machining operations. CAD software uses either vector based graphics to depict the objects of traditional drafting, or may also produce raster graphics showing the overall appearance of designed objects. CAD often involves more than just shapes. As in the manual drafting of technical and engineering drawings, the output of CAD must convey information, such as materials, processes, dimensions, and tolerances, according to application-specific conventions. CAD may be used to design curves and figures in two-dimensional (2D) space; or curves, surfaces, and solids in three-dimensional (3D) space. CAD is an important industrial art extensively used in many applications, including automotive, shipbuilding, and aerospace industries, industrial and architectural design, prosthetics, and many more. CAD is also widely used to produce computer animation for special in movies, advertising and technical manuals. The modern ubiquity and power of computers means that even perfume bottles and shampoo dispensers are designed using techniques unheard of by engineers of the 1960s. Because of its enormous economic importance, CAD has been a major driving force for research in geometry, computer (both hardware and software), and discrete differential geometry. 

AutoCAD is a software application for computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting. The software supports both 2D and 3D formats. The software is developed and sold by Autodesk, Inc., first released in December 1982 by Autodesk in the year following the purchase of the first form of the software by Autodesk founder, John Walker. AutoCAD is Autodesk's flagship product and by March 1986 had become the most ubiquitous microcomputer design program in the world, utilizing functions such as "polyclinics" and "curve fitting". Prior to the introduction of AutoCAD, most other CAD programs ran on mainframe computers or minicomputers, with each user's unit connected to a graphics computer terminal. According to its own company information, Autodesk states that the AutoCAD software is now used in a range of industries, employed by architects, project managers and engineers, amongst other professions, and as of 1994 there had been 750 training centers established across the world to educate users about the company's primary products.