So do the gamut of engineering professionals, from those in civil engineering to mechanical, electrical, and aeronautics firms.

City planning agencies, graphic design firms, interior design firms, and architectural companies use AutoCAD. Various and widespread industries have flocked to AutoCAD over the years. Users could automatically center lines, automate drawing dimensions, and copy geometric shapes. Within five years, AutoCAD was the worldwide leader in computer-aided drafting programs. In the beginning, AutoCAD was strictly a 2D drawing program, and very good at it.īecause of its precision, experienced engineers and beginners fell in love with this new program.

These include T-squares, compasses, and rulers. The ease-of-use toolbox offers a variety of drafting instruments to make technical drawings. When users open this computer-aided design program, the user interface makes it look like they are sitting down at a drafting table. This worked for smaller firms and individual consultants, for they no longer needed to attach themselves to hunky computers that only larger drafting, architectural, or engineering firms could afford. At the time, users worked on their separate graphics terminals while all were tied back to the bigger computer.ĪutoCAD allowed individual users to work by themselves. That was a novel CAD software idea back in the day because before AutoCAD any commercially viable CAD program ran on bigger minicomputers or mainframes. Originally, it was a desktop application that ran on microcomputers with internal graphics cards of both Microsoft and Apple PCs. What is AutoCAD?Īlmost 40 years ago (December 1982) Autodesk introduced one of the most advanced computer-aided drafting programs for the growing personal computer market. In this article, we will look at AutoCAD vs SketchUp in-depth, tell you their similarities and differences, and how to select the best one for you. Two of the most notable CAD programs are AutoCAD and SketchUp. Instead of piles of blueprints rolled up in a corner bin, CAD programs architects and engineers can now digitally save their workflow in incremental steps as each project nears completion. Computer-aided design takes the drafting table out of your office and replaces it with a personal computer program that automates all the same processes.

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