Page "Computer-aided design" Paragraph 42

Key products for 1981 were the solid modelling packages-Romulus ( ShapeData ) and Uni-Solid ( Unigraphics ) based on PADL-2 and the release of the surface modeler CATIA ( Dassault Systemes ).

Autodesk was founded 1982 by John Walker, which led to the 2D system AutoCAD.

The next milestone was the release of Pro / ENGINEER in 1988, which heralded greater usage of feature-based modeling methods and parametric linking of the parameters of features.

Also of importance to the development of CAD was the development of the B-rep solid modeling kernels ( engines for manipulating geometrically and topologically consistent 3D objects ) Parasolid ( ShapeData ) and ACIS ( Spatial Technology Inc .) at the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s, both inspired by the work of Ian Braid.

This led to the release of mid-range packages such as SolidWorks in 1995, Solid Edge ( then Intergraph ) in 1996 and Autodesk Inventor in 1999.