20+ Years of Design, Technology & More
20+ Years of Design, Technology & More
The Accidental Empire
How a band of UNIVAC hackers, a borrowed plotter, and five long-shot bets became one of the most influential software companies ever built. The oral history Autodesk never officially told. Here are the Oral History of many early Autodesk founders and those in its early history.
One of the simplest and most effective things you can do to maintain a stable, high-performing CAD workstation is to reboot regularly and keep your machine current with IT and hardware updates. AutoCAD, Civil 3D and other CAD applications accumulate…
Autodesk's journey from a scrappy startup to a global powerhouse reshaped industries with its pioneering design software. Now I’m
Offering some of my Autodesk and AutoCAD artifacts.
The post discusses the challenges of sending and receiving transmittals in Civil 3D and AutoCAD, highlighting common issues like missing external references and font conflicts. eTransmit simplifies this by packaging all dependencies accurately. It provides options for setup, packaging formats, and paths, ensuring recipients receive functional files. A checklist for effective usage is included.
If you have Autodesk Desktop Connector (ACC Docs – changing to Forma brand) installed – and in 2026 you almost certainly do – stop using the built-in AutoCAD and Civil 3D Reference Manager. Reference Explorer is sitting right there in…
Civil 3D and AutoCAD's performance issues primarily stem from predictable sequential math requirements that multithreading disrupts. Unlike parallel tasks like rendering, CAD calculations must remain consistent, as dependencies affect results. Thus, single-core CPU speed is crucial, while more cores benefit background tasks but won't resolve geometry-related delays in CAD operations.
In November 2013, Autodesk successfully ran full versions of its applications like Inventor and Revit in web browsers through a partnership with Mozilla, OTOY, AWS, and NVIDIA. Despite the groundbreaking performance, Autodesk chose not to launch the product due to pricing, internal politics, and fear of disrupting existing profits, ultimately opting for limited cloud features instead.
The annual budget season is a test of patience for CAD managers, where spreadsheets become battlegrounds as they navigate potential price increases. Expecting flat rates is a fragile hope, but the real threat lies in subtle cost escalations cloaked as 'simplification.' As loyalty wanes quietly, firms must prepare for an 80% solution that balances reliability and cost.
Serious CAD issues, particularly in Civil 3D, stem from simple mistakes, such as using incompatible software versions. Mixing versions leads to proxy objects, causing potential data corruption and performance degradation. To maintain data integrity, projects should consistently use one version throughout their lifecycle and confirm version alignment with all collaborators before file exchanges.
From CAD to cloud and AI, Autodesk's journey is a testament to evolving with technology while maintaining its core mission: empowering creativity and design.