Autodesk - Autodesk Software - How Autodesk Began
Autodesk - Autodesk Software - How Autodesk Began
Autodesk is the creator of various software products that focus on 2D and 3D design for use in architecture, engineering, building construction and manufacturing. It also has designed media and entertainment solutions for digital media creation, management, and delivery across all kinds of areas from film and television visual effects, color grading, and editing to animation, game development, and design visualization. Autodesk's Media and Entertainment Division is based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was established in 1999 after Autodesk, Inc. acquired Discreet Logic, Inc. and merged its operations with Kinetix which division is now the leader in PC-based 3D modeling and animation software, providing a full range of products for digital media and design professionals. Autodesk is the fourth largest PC software company in the world and has over 3 million customers in over 150 countries. Autodesk products are sold through Autodesk Systems Centers, Dealers and Distributors worldwide. In January 2006, Autodesk acquired Alias, a developer of 3D graphics technology. In October 2008, Autodesk acquired the Softimage brand from Avid. The principal product offerings from the Media and Entertainment Division of Autodesk are Maya, Softimage, 3ds Max, Inferno, Flame, Discreet Flint, Discreet Smoke, Lustre, ImageModeler and Stitcher. These products have all won Academy Awards. Autodesk has become best known for it's computer-aided design software "AutoCAD." In addition to AutoCAD, Autodesk develops Digital Prototyping solutions to visualize, simulate, and analyze real-world performance using a digital model during the design process. AutoCAD was derived from a program called Interact, which was written in a proprietary language (SPL) and ran on the Marinchip Systems 9900 computer (Marinchip was owned by Autodesk co-founders John Walker and Dan Drake.) When Marinchip Software Partners (later to be renamed Autodesk) was formed, they decided to re-code Interact in C and PL/1 -- C, because it seemed to be the biggest upcoming language, and PL/1. In the end, the PL/1 version was unsuccessful. The C version was, at the time, one of the most complex programs in that language to date. Autodesk even had to work with the compiler developer (Lattice) to fix certain limitations to get AutoCAD to run, and now, as one of the most expensive softwares on the market, AutoCAD is the most widely used for computer-aided design and is even taught in Universities.