Computer Chronicles Revisited 115 — Generic CADD, FastCAD, Design and Solid Dimensions, and VersaCAD

The fifth season of Computer Chronicles came to a close in June 1988 with an episode focused on computer-aided design (CAD) software. As is true with many major developments in the history of computing, CAD originated in military applications. Indeed, the first use of the term “computer-aided design” is credited to Douglas T. Ross, the head of the Computer Applications Group at MIT’s Servomechanisms Lab in the 1950s, who used CAD to describe a 1959 contract to design automated control systems for the United States Air Force.

These early CAD systems often required multi-million dollar mainframe computers. And as Stewart Cheifet noted in his cold open for this episode, a professional CAD system in 1988 could still run upwards of $20,000. But it was also now possible to run fairly sophisticated CAD software on personal computers, including Intel 386-based PCs and the Macintosh II, which could purchased for as little as $100.

Cheifet opened the main program by showing Jan Lewis, sitting in as co-host, an Apple II program called Car Builder, which he described as a “CAD program for kids.” As the name suggested, Car Builder enabled the user to create simple car designs and perform basic tests, such as simulating the effects wind. Cheifet jokingly named his car design “HyperCar” after Lewis’ HyperAge magazine.

Cheifet then asked Lewis to distinguish between a computer drawing program and a full-blown CAD/CAM program. (CAM stands for computer-aided manufacturing.) Continuing with the car example, Lewis said a real manufacturer like General Motors needed software that could do a large number of permutations quickly. Personal CAD software brought this level of sophistication down to a level where individuals could handle it, albeit without as much intricacy. And unlike a drawing program, CAD software manipulated objects through various conditions, while a draw program was meant to create a static image.

Construction Company Touted In-House CAD System

Wendy Woods presented her first remote report from the San Francisco offices of Bechtel Group, Inc., an international architectural, engineering, and construction firm. Over B-roll of computer-generated animations of a space shuttle, a subway station, and a roller coaster, Woods said all of these designs currently existed exclusively within the memory of a computer. Common to all of these designs was a level of detail and realism that made it possible to build a factory, power plant, or transit system entirely in digital form before committing it to construction.

The software that made this possible, Woods said, was a combination of packages developed by Bechtel. 3DM was a three-dimensional modeling system that permitted an engineering team to design and view a project in layers, from the outside structure to the individual elements inside. Since the program drew its data from the original schematic–or logical design–it accurately represented each element and system and how they fit together. The program could also detect how changes in any one part of a system might affect another.

Woods added that the same digital data used to create the static model could be used to build an animated model with a software package called Walkthru. This software permitted an engineer to examine a solid model of the project, move individual parts, and inspect the premises in real-time like a tiny human model (as opposed to a model for tiny humans).

3DM and Walkthru had all but replaced manual blueprints at Bechtel, Woods concluded. More importantly, the software established a common design database that every project member could rely on and contribute to.

The Power of CAD for Under $100

Bob Fulton and Mike Riddle joined Cheifet and Lewis back in the studio. Fulton was the president and CEO of Washington-based Generic Software, Inc., which made Generic CADD. Riddle was the president of Arizona-based Evolution Computing, Inc., which developed FastCAD.

Lewis opened by noting that there had been a proliferation of CAD packages within the past year, including Riddle’s FastCAD. What was the reason for this? Riddle said the hardware had improved quite a bit in terms of speed and memory, and the cost had come down to the point where more people could afford a computer that could handle both graphics and word processing at the same time.

Cheifet noted that in contrast to CAD programs costing thousands of dollars, Fulton’s Generic CADD sold for about $99. He asked for a demo. Fulton used Generic CADD to create a simple floor plan for a house. He started by creating interior walls followed by some bathroom and kitchen fixtures. Cheifet asked if the fixtures were something the user could create. Fulton said yes, you could create them or buy premade objects.

In response to a question from Lewis, Fulton next showed how you could replace an object in a design, such as substituting a bathtub for a shower in the bathroom. Cheifet followed up, asking what would you do if the bathtub didn’t fit into the existing floor plan. Fulton said you could move the wall, assuming this was a new design and not, say, your existing house. Cheifet noted this was similar to a spreadsheet in that you could “experiment” with different designs, such as moving furniture around a room.

Cheifet asked about the typical user for Generic CADD. Would it be a homeowner or would it also be a professional architect or designer? Futon said there was no “typical” user. He said about 24 percent of the Generic CADD user base were architects and engineers. Another 36 percent were Fortune 1000 corporations. The remaining 40 percent were a wide range of individuals such as Realtors, police officers, firefighters, and even people making quilts.

Turning to Riddle, Cheifet asked for a demonstration of FastCAD. Riddle also pulled up a floor plan for a house–in this case, his own residence in Arizona. Riddle said he’d recently converted one of his bedrooms into an office. This required moving one of the walls out by about 2 feet (0.6 meters). He then showed how this was done in FastCAD. There was also an undo command so he could reverse the change and compare it to the original layout.

Riddle then pulled up a design for a simple single-room layout that displayed the actual measurements. By adjusting the dimensions of the room, the software would automatically update those measurements. Lewis asked if the measurements could be displayed in metric units. Riddle said yes, there was an option to change the units to meters or even inches.

Continuing his demo, Riddle pulled up a 2D perspective drawing a desert-style ranch home designed by an architect. It was possible to change the perspective and zoom in on specific parts of the image. Cheifet asked if it was possible to do 3D rendering. Riddle said FastCAD was a 2D CAD program. But Evolution Computing also had a 3D program that would be shipping soon. He pulled up a demo of that software, which showed a wireframe 3D image of a teapot from four different angles. (This may have been a nod to the famous teapot model created by Martin Newell at the University of Utah in 1975 to demonstrate early computer graphics technology.)

Cheifet noted that one of FastCAD’s features was in fact its speed. What was the benefit of speed in a CAD program? Riddle said many people assumed it was something like completing an 8-hour job in just 6 hours. But the real benefit was that instead of taking 20 seconds to make a change to a design, it now only took 3 or 4 seconds. That meant you didn’t lose your train of thought as you perfected a design. It was therefore easier to experiment with changes.

CAD Reseller Offered Complete Systems and Training

Wendy Woods returned for her second remote report, this time from InterCad Inc. in Santa Clara, California. Woods said that for those just getting into the business of computerizing their design and drafting, life could be very confusing. There was usually a good chunk of money to consider–between $35,000 and $50,000–and hundreds of combinations of hardware and software.

That was where InterCad came in, Woods said. InterCad was a “value-added reseller” that put together a custom package of hardware and software to fill a client’s needs, whether that was designing a building, a widget, or even a printed circuit board.

John Murphy, InterCad’s general manager, told Woods that his clients often had limited exposure to computers. They were primarily engineers who wanted to focus on design. They weren’t experts on computers, digitizers, plotters, and so forth, so that was where InterCad could step in and help. Woods noted that value-added resellers like InterCad also provided service and training, which further minimized the confusion that a first-time CAD buyer could face.

In closing, Woods said that there was no indication that choosing a CAD system was going to get any easier. Within the next five years, there was expected to be a number of new factors to consider, including the prevalence of networking; “artificial intelligence” features in software; faster, cheaper, and more powerful systems; and even a new class of users. This all meant that businesses like InterCad would have plenty to do well into the future.

Exploring the Possibilities of CAD on the Mac

John Saguto and Nick Pavlovic joined Cheifet and Lewis for the final studio segment. Saguto was the marketing director with Versacad Corp., which developed VersaCAD. (The corporate name did not capitalize “CAD.”) Pavlovic was the president of Visual Information, Inc., which developed Design and Solid Dimensions.

Lewis noted that Versacad had recently rewritten its PC VersaCAD software for the Macintosh. Why? Saguto said it came down to the Macintosh’s graphical user interface. That made it possible for a Mac user to learn VersaCAD quicker. He added the Macintosh version required a much different approach than with MS-DOS and UNIX-based systems, which were still built on text interfaces.

Pressing further, Lewis asked why the Macintosh version of VersaCAD was a complete rewrite as opposed to a port of the old package. Saguto said a port would not have allowed Versacad to address one of the biggest problems with CAD packages, which was to simplify it so more users could actually operate the software. Combining the Macintosh GUI with VersaCAD’s already easy-to-use interface made it one of the most complete CAD packages available for the Mac.

Turning to Pavlovic, Cheifet asked for a demonstration of Design and Solid Dimensions, which was also a CAD package for the Macintosh II. Pavlovic described Dimensions as a “conceptual design and presentation system.” He pulled up a 3D image of a piston connecting rod to show off the program’s smooth shading and edges. He then pulled up a graphic display of 3D letters generated using the software’s ray-tracing. This made it possible to create 3D presentations incorporating text and graphics.

Pavlovic next showed a 3D display of both the inside of an office and the exterior of the office building. You could also show the exterior of the building in wireframe mode. He added some exterior objects–palm trees–to the building’s parking lot while still in wireframe mode. He also showed how you could scale the size of objects by making one of the palm trees bigger than the others. It was also possible to do an animation of a design, showing it from multiple angles.

Cheifet noted that the animation stopped when Pavlovic used the mouse. Pavlovic said that was an intentional design choice to help the user work more quickly and efficiently. Similarly, the software would stop a refresh of a design to allow the user to choose a new command from the menu.

Turning back to Saguto, Cheifet noted that the Macintosh version of VersaCAD did some interesting things with Apple’s HyperCard. Saguto pulled up a demo containing an office building floor plan. He demonstrated how the software tracked every object, in this case by having two interior office doors move to show they would collide.

Saguto then showed off what Cheifet referenced, a HyperCard application of VersaCAD called “HyperCAD.” There were about half a dozen routines specifically designed to import information from a VersaCAD database into HyperCard. For his demo, Saguto created a graphical report summarizing the cost of various parts used in a VersaCAD design.

Finally, Cheifet asked about VersaCAD’s 3D capabilities. Saguto pulled up a 3D drawing of the same office floor plan from earlier, only now it displayed four different angles and added colors to the images.

Mike Riddle’s Complicated History with Autodesk

One CAD product we did not hear about in this episode was Autodesk’s AutoCAD, which even in 1988 was generally considered the market leader in this category. It turns out that FastCAD developer Mike Riddle was also one of the people responsible for creating the original Autodesk. According to the late David E. Weisberg’s comprehensive history of CAD, Riddle graduated from Arizona State University in 1973 and went to work for a steel fabricator where he was first exposed to a CAD system, in this case a $250,000 mainframe used to design steel supports for a nuclear power plant.

By the end of the 1970s, Riddle was a self-employed computer consultant. In 1977, he started developing his own microcomputer-based CAD program called Interact. Five years later, in 1982, he joined a group of software developers in forming a company called Marin Software Partners. The original plan was for the new company to develop software programs contributed by the individual partners.

John Walker, the leader of the group, quickly determined that Riddle’s Interact was the strongest offering among the original partners’ contributions. Riddle agreed to a non-exclusive licensing agreement, allowing the partnership to develop and publish Interact in exchange for a 10-percent royalty. Walker initially changed the name of the program to MicroCAD and debuted it along with a filing program he called Autodesk at the March 1982 West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.

A few weeks later, Marin Software Partners formally incorporated. They originally planned to name the company Desktop Solutions, but after the California Secretary of State’s office rejected that and several alternatives, Walker decided to use the Autodesk name as a temporary placeholder for the corporate name. It ended up sticking, however, and thus Autodesk, Inc., was born.

In late 1982, Autodesk renamed its version of Riddle’s CAD software AutoCAD. As Autodesk held a non-exclusive license, Riddle continued to develop the original Interact on his own. Indeed, Riddle apparently had little to no contact with the Autodesk team in California, as he continued to reside in Tempe, Arizona.

By 1985, Riddle started marketing a sub-$500 version of Interact designed for the Macintosh called EasyCAD. Two years later, he released a DOS equivalent called FastCAD. This did not sit well with Autodesk, which by this point had morophed from a programmer-controlled partnership into a public company run by professional management. The new Autodesk not only took issue with Riddle offering a lower-cost competing product to AutoCAD, but also the original licensing agreement. As AutoCAD sales soared, the annual royalty payments to Riddle exceeded $1 million.

Things soon decayed into litigation, with Autodesk trying to force Riddle into pulling EasyCAD from the market, and Riddle claiming Autodesk was behind on its royalty payments. The parties settled in 1992, with Autodesk making a one-time payment to Riddle of $11.9 million in exchange for a waiver of any future payments. Riddle could also continue to market EasyCAD and FastCAD unimpeded by Autodesk, which he continued to do through the 2020s.

Incidentally, Autodesk did manage to sort-of kill one other product featured in this episode. In March 1989, Autodesk purchased Bob Fulton’s Generic Software, Inc., for an undisclosed sum. At the time, Fulton said Generic had sales of about $7 million, which was about one-fifth of Autodesk’s revenues. Autodesk did continue to update and release Generic CADD up until around 1992, at which time the company effectively abandoned the product. A different company, Washington-based Numera Software Corporation, subsequently hired several of the original Generic CADD developers, who then created an enhanced version called VisualCADD. The rights to VisualCADD currently belong to Gold Run Partners, Inc., which released the most recent version (9.0.1) in February 2024.

VersaCAD Founder Later Reacquired Software

Tom Lazear and William Yunek founded T&W Systems in 1977 as a part-time business to develop medical billing software. Lazear’s wife worked at a surgical practice where Tunek was the manager. After completing that project, Lazear, a computer engineer by training, turned his attention to developing a CAD system. This led to the T-Square, a CAD package that used a Terak 8510/a microcomputer–one of the first such machines to have a bitmap graphics display–and software programmed in UCSD Pascal. The basic system cost $23,500, which as David Weisenberg noted was a bargain when compared to the typical minicomputer-based CAD systems of the late 1970s, which ran around $125,000.

T&W Systems formally debuted the T-Square at the fall 1981 COMDEX show. Shortly afterwards, Tom Lazear’s son Mike reprogrammed the T-Square software to work on the Apple II. Now, we’re not talking a stock Apple II Plus that you bought at ComptuerLand. The complete CAD system–dubbed CADapple–cost around $10,000 and came with a plotter and the CAD software, which initially sold for $2,495 on its own.

The following year, 1983, T&W ported the T-Square software to the IBM PC, which it dubbed VersaCAD and sold for an initial retail price of $1,995. This version still required the USCD Pascal operating system. It was not until 1984 that T&W released a PC version written specifically for MS-DOS. That same year, the company introduced a separate $4,000 UNIX version designed for the Sun Microsystems Sun-2 workstation.

In 1986, Lazear changed the name of the business from T&W Systems to Versacad Corporation. By this point, Versacad was doing about $5.5 million in annual sales and its product line included reselling Mike Riddle’s EasyCAD for the Macintosh. Versacad did release its own version of VersaCAD for the Mac in 1987, but it apparently didn’t sell well.

In November 1987, Massachusetts-based Prime Computer Inc. acquired Versacad. Originally a minicomputer manufacturer, Prime Computer saw Versacad as its entry into the CAD business. Indeed, just a few weeks after completing the Versacad deal, Prime Computer launched a hostile takeover of Computervision, one of the oldest companies in the field. Prime ended up paying $435 million for Computervision. A year later, Prime Computer made a third CAD acquisition, purchasing Calma Company from General Electric.

By this time, Tom Lazear was now a Prime Computer vice president in charge of the three CAD units. But he decided to leave the company and together with his son formed their own business, Archway Systems, Inc., in 1989. Archway originally provided consulting and reseller services for what was now Prime Computer’s Computervision division.

Meanwhile, Prime Computer itself fell victim to a $1.3 billion hostile takeover bid launched by MAI Basic Four, Inc., a California-based computer company. To thwart the takeover, Prime Computer chairman David Dunn negotiated a leveraged buyout of the company led by investment banking firm J.H. Whitney & Co., which funded the deal largely through issuing junk bonds.

In other words, Whitney saddled Prime Computer with a ton of debt from which the company never managed to fully recover. As the company’s core minicomputer business started to crater–thanks largely to the rise of the 386 PC–Prime Computer shed its non-CAD businesses and renamed itself Computervision Corporation in 1992. The new Computervision then went public again with a stock sale that barely made a dent in the company’s massive debt.

Computervision continued to struggle through the 1990s, and in 1998, it was finally sold to Massachusetts-based Parametric Technlogy Corporation (PTC) in a stock swap valued at $260 million. PTC had no interest in keeping VersaCAD, which had been languishing since the Prime Computer transition to Computervision, and in 1999 PTC agreed to give the product back to Tom Lazear and his Archway Systems. (At the time, there were still about 1,500 active VersaCAD licenses.) According to David Weisenberg, the only payment was Archway’s promise to develop a program to convert VersaCAD files into a format usable by PTC’s own Pro/ENGINEER CAD software.

The Lazear family continued to update and release VersaCAD into the mid-2010s, with the most recent release in December 2015.

Notes from the Random Access File