ABSTRACT
The transformation of CAD from a research project at MIT laboratories into a multibillion dollar industry did not occur overnight—nor were the goals and ambitions of the CAD Project members fully embodied in the products that dominated the market. 1 Responding to users’ pragmatic needs, the fledgling market of CAD software was dominated by systems for drawing production, without the links to manufacturing machines or the analytical powers imagined by the CAD Project pioneers. Robin Forrest—who participated in the CAD Project as a visiting researcher in the 1960s—illustrates the pioneers’ disillusioned view:
[S]o CAD really meant more in 1965 than it does nowadays [1989]… The “D” became not design, but drafting. I once asked a vendor what his program could do other than produce drawings. He looked absolutely amazed that you would ever want to do anything other than produce drawings. 2
