AUTOCAD

• AutoCAD is a software application developed

by Autodesk that enables computer-aided
design (CAD) and drafting. The software is
used to produce 2D and 3D drawings.
AutoCAD software allows users to
conceptualize ideas, produce designs and
drawings to the required levels of technical
accuracy, and even perform rapid design
calculations and simulations; across a wide
range of industries.
 The First CAD Software for PCs
• AutoCAD has been available on the market
since 1982, making it the first CAD system
developed for PCs. This means that AutoCAD
has been around longer than Adobe
Photoshop or even Microsoft Windows!
Before AutoCAD, commercial CAD programs in
the 70s ran on mainframe computers or
minicomputers, with each user working at a
separate graphics terminal.
 The Origins of AutoCAD
• The company behind AutoCAD, Autodesk was founded
in 1982 by John Walker. He and the other 15 co-
founders intended to develop five different desktop
automation applications, hoping that one of the
applications would take off. Their flagship product
turned out to be AutoCAD. They launched AutoCAD at
the COMDEX trade show in Las Vegas as the first CAD
program in the world to run on a PC. By March 1986,
only four years after it was introduced, AutoCAD had
become the most widely used design application
worldwide, a position it still holds today.
• In its 35 years, AutoCAD has grown substantially. In
fact, there has been 31 versions since the first release
in December 1982! Over the years, Autodesk added
new features and programs to appeal to different
professions. The software supports APIs for
customization and automation, which enabled the
creation of vertical products such as AutoCAD
Architecture, AutoCAD Electrical and AutoCAD Civil 3D.
In the last five years, Autodesk has also created mobile
and cloud-based apps, including AutoCAD 360, Fusion
360, and A360 Viewer. These programs couple design
and documentation tools together with the ability to
share and collaborate via the Internet.
• For full details of each release, head over to
Autodesk’s bloc archive on AutoCAD release
history

https://tinyurl.com/ydhke7h8
A Flashback into the Past
A Flashback into the Past
A Flashback into the Past
A Flashback into the Past
 AutoCAD’s Applications
• AutoCAD was initially created for mechanical
engineers, but very quickly extended to
encompass a range of fields. In fact,
AutoCAD’s success is largely due to its mass
adoption by a wide range of design
professionals, including architects, project
managers, animators and engineers.
 Construction
• The main industry in which AutoCAD is used is
construction. Autodesk Building Design Suite
provides a 3D building design software
portfolio that combines Building Information
Modeling (BIM) and CAD tools to help
construction engineers design, visualize,
simulate and build more efficiently.
 Animation
• It is not just in the construction sector where
AutoCAD has seen regular use: the Entertainment
Creation suites can produce high quality
entertainment content by using 3D animation
software. With an array of specialized creative
toolsets integrated to form a modern, flexible
graphic pipeline, the suites allows animators,
visual effects artists and modelers to push the
boundaries of their creative abilities, increase
their productivity and meet tight deadlines.
 History of the DXF File Format
• Do you know that the DXF format has been
around for 33 years? Back then, .jpg and .gifs had
not even existed! AutoCAD was only just
introduced to the world. Those old folks used
360Kb floppy disks and $40,000 computers.
Despite that, the inventors had thought through
the file format so well. The DXF file format is
adopted as the industry standard for CAD
software and the file structure is still in use today.
Here’s a quick flashback at when and why the DXF
file was invented.
 History and Future of DWG
• Created in the 1970s and launched by
Autodesk in 1982, DWG has established itself
as one of the most ubiquitous file format for
CAD software on the planet. Everyone who
uses CAD will be familiar with it,

– but how much do you really know about it?

 What is DWG?
• The DWG file format allows users to store two
and three-dimensional design data for use in
CAD software. DWGs allow you to store vector
entities, maps, geographic information, and
even photos. Essentially, any information that
you can enter into a CAD program can be
stored in a DWG file.
 The Beginnings
• The history of the DWG file format begins in the
late 1970s. Programmer Mike Riddle found
himself unsatisfied with the CAD programs
available to him on the market – so instead of
waiting around for someone to build something
better, he built it himself. Starting in 1977, Riddle
began work on a new CAD program, Interact
CAD – and its native file format was to be (you
guessed it) DWG, which stands for drawing.
Initially released in 1979, Interact CAD was far
from a runaway success: Riddle only managed to
sell around 30 copies of the software.
• Despite the rocky start, it was clear that the
new software had potential, and in the early
1980s, Interact CAD was acquired by the
newly-formed company Autodesk. Interact
CAD was to form the architectural basis for a
new CAD program, AutoCAD, which was
launched in 1982 by Autodesk – at that time, a
small company formed by John Walker and a
handful of programmer friends, including
Riddle.
• The DWG format was finally about to be
introduced to the public on a much larger
scale. While Interact CAD had reached only a
handful of customers in its first few years of
release, AutoCAD rose to become the most
widely-used CAD program in the world
just four years after its initial release.
One of the earliest form of the DWG format shown in a 1982 edition of AutoCAD
 DWG Dominance
• Thanks to the global reach achieved by
AutoCAD, the DWG file format quickly became
the go-to standard for CAD designers. In fact,
it was estimated that by 1998, there were
more than two billion DWG files in existence –
and considering that another 18 years have
passed, the number has surely ballooned even
further since.
• The DWG format is subject to versioning. This
means that every few years, major
adjustments are made to the file format, as it
adapts to technical advances and changes in
software. New versions of AutoCAD will be
able to support any DWG file, even those
created for the first version of AutoCAD in
1982. Old versions of AutoCAD, however,
won’t be able to open files saved to the newer
versions of DWG.
 Legal Battles
• Not everyone is happy with DWG’s status as a
proprietary file format. In 1998, the OpenDWG
Alliance was founded with the aim of making
DWG an open standard for CAD software, much
as the DXF format is. The organization was
renamed as the Open Design Alliance in 2002.
The group includes a number of competitors to
Autodesk, and has aimed to reverse-engineer the
DWG format, so that a method of reading and
writing DWG files can be incorporated into other,
non-licensed CAD programs.
• Autodesk retaliated against this by introducing
TrustedDWG technology, which verifies if a file
was created and saved in Autodesk-licensed
software. Autodesk made further efforts to
defend their format by attempting to register
“DWG” as a trademark with the U.S. Patent
Office; this would have prevented other
organizations from using the term.
• In support of their claim, they stated that
“DWG” no longer referred solely to the file
format, but also to a specific technology
environment present within Autodesk
software. However, the Patent Office issued a
final refusal to register the trademark in 2011,
with the refusal being affirmed once again in
2013.
 Future of DWG
• As previously mentioned, Autodesk failed to
release a new version of DWG for the 2016 and
2017 versions of AutoCAD, as would normally be
expected. The head of the Open Design Alliance,
Neil Peterson, speculated this could be due to a
lack of new features. A former head of the ODA,
Arnold van der Weide, even suggested that
Autodesk could be planning to do away with the
DWG format altogether. Could Autodesk’s move
towards cloud-based software kill DWG entirely?
“Even if Autodesk did away with
it, our 1,250 members and
millions of their customers
would keep right on using
DWG.”
- Neil Peterson, President of the Open Design Alliance
 AutoCAD Careers
• AutoCAD is used across various industries,
which is why it’s a prerequisite skill for many
potential jobs. In fact, some sectors will have
it as part of the potential job title, e.g.
‘AutoCAD Electrical Drafter’. Although there
are many AutoCAD career options out there,
we’re going to concentrate on four main
groups:
• Drafting
• Engineering
• Architecture
• Design
 Drafting
• Drafters use software like AutoCAD to convert
the designs of engineers or architects
into technical drawings and blueprints.
– Mechanical Drafter
– Electrical Drafter
– Architectural Drafter
– Civil Drafter
 Engineering
• Engineers use software like AutoCAD to
produce designs and specifications for
the manufacturing or modification of
mechanical components or systems.
– Mechanical Engineer
– Civil Engineer
– Industrial Engineer
– Geodetic Engineer
 Architecture
• Software like AutoCAD is very popular in the
field of architecture. It can be used to create
detailed floor plans and 3D renderings of
structures. Furthermore, architects can use
the software to analyze a building’s
components, or to calculate the load levels of
support structures.
– Architect
 Design
• Designers, like architects, can create 2D
models and 3D renderings of their design by
making use of the extensive libraries and
templates that AutoCAD has to offer. These
designs can even include aspects like surface
features (windows, doors) and interior
features (furniture, color scheme).
– Interior Designer
– Industrial Designer
 Notice
Please Download and Install AutoCAD Student
Version

Here is the link:

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 References
• https://www.scan2cad.com/
• https://www.scan2cad.com/dxf/infographic-
history/
• https://tinyurl.com/ydhke7h8