Autodesk at 25 Years, the Autodesk Timeline and some of my favorite AutoCAD moments

It's been 25 years since AutoCAD was first demonstrated at COMDEX in Las Vegas. To celebrate 25 years of digital design innovation, Autodesk has launched a website along with an interesting timeline.

I received this interesting bit of AutoCAD history... Did you know that 25 years ago John Walker & 16 employees started Autodesk, with the sole goal of creating a CAD application for under $1,000? In 25 years that tiny company has grown to over 5,000 employees in 33 countries, with product offerings spanning a variety of industries, from architecture to civil engineering to computer animated graphics. Over the years AutoCAD, the company’s flagship product, has been joined by an ever-growing family of products that leverage the trusted platform’s capabilities to address the specific needs of a variety of designers, including AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Electrical and most recently AutoCAD P&ID, to name a few.

Some cool milestones:

1984 - revenues top 1 million
1985 - Autodesk goes public (ADSK)
1990 - Glenn Letham starts using AuoCAD r9 for pipeline mapping project (remember the dot prompt?) - OK - I slipped this one in!
1992 - Carol Bartz named CEO (you gotta love a woman CEO who will freely drop an "F-bomb" when you least expect it!)
2005 - ADSK scores an Academy Award
2006 - Carl Bass named President and CEO
2007 - Autodesk now reports 8 million licensed users worldwide

See www.autodesk.com/autocad25

Some of my favorite Autodesk / AutoCAD memories:
- using AutoCAD in my first GIS related internship to map the natural gas pipelines in Victoria, BC
- seeing John Cleese at Autodesk U in Vegas, 2003
- the Autodesk Miramar hospitality event in San Diego (GITA)
- having one-on one's with Lynn Allen, Carl Bass, Chris Bradshaw, Carol Bartz, and other ADSK execs.
- the Mapguide open source launch in Orlando
- Autodesk realize your ideas tour in Vancouver and meeting Guy Kawasaki
- a cool Autodedesk intro event in Atlanta - the travelling road shows are awesome!
- DWF (say no more!)
- the Pre-season ball game in Tampa with open bar complete with 24 oz. beer cups...

Lynn Allen and John Cleese on stage at AU 2003

Me Meeting the AUGI Dawg in 2005!