ABSTRACT
In 1957, Dr. Patrick J. Hanratty, known as “the father of CAD,” developed PRONTO, the first numerical-control programming system. The first CAD, or computer aided or assisted design, used simple algorithms to display patterns in two dimensions (2-D). In March 1965, Donald Welbourn was given a grant by the Science Research Council with which to start work on CAD, and it was he who saw the possibility of using the computer to assist in modeling 3-D shapes. In 1971, Hanratty founded Manufacturing and Consulting Services, Inc., which developed the first commercially available CAD product. Mike and Tom Lazear are credited with developing the first personal computer CAD software in 1979. From the 1980s to the present, the software has undergone many changes, but the basic concept has stayed the same.
