Late 1980s. . . . . .
Intergraph had its mainframe 32 bit IGDS CAD software
running and producing at 4 times manual drafting productivity.
They were pioneers of CAD and display processor cards in the
1970s. They invented the reference file system of CAD file
and data organization.
Intergraph, even though it had the major project experience,
was second to McDonnell-Douglas in CAD productivity and speed.
Later, AutoCAD copied the M-D layer system of data organization.
M-D CAD, after all, was in use designing aircraft, and it had the
best technology anywhere.
AutoDesk didn't even exist at the time. When it started, it was
a hobbyists game running on early PCs.
Bentley Systems Inc.then came on the scene with a knock-off of
the major CAD player, Intergraph IGDS. BSI's MicroStation
ran on what we now know to be the primitive IBM 80286 chip PC.
BSI patched its MicroStation files into the Digital
Equipment Corp. [DEC] VAX mainframe, urning the VMS OS.
The transmission belt from PC to the mainframe was Kermit SW.
BSI's MicroStation was functioning in a 32 bit mainframe
industrial environment way before AutoCAD was out of its
16 bit home hobbyist environment.
AutoDesk badmouthed the "big iron" 32 bit CAD SW products,
and it got itself positioned on the desks of the secretaries in
small architectural offices and small engineering firms.
Their claim to architects was that ALL CAD SW automation
was AutoCAD. AutoDesk lied furiously to gain converts. The
architectural managers bought in to the lie, and that was
provided by the architect employee-hobbyists who introduced
ACAD into the architectural offices via the secretaries'
computers. No matter that more CPU speed, more users,
more display computing, more display RAM, more main RAM,
more main and display bus bandwidth, and higher resolution
display cards and monitors were required.
After all, Autodesk said that since the engineers were using
ACAD [billed as all CAD] the architects should use it, ......and,
would you believe, Autodesk said the same thing to the
engineers regarding the architects. They then persuaded
the construction firms to join into the con, and to form a
triad of lies.
McDonnell-Douglass and Intergraph were still the players
that offered four times manual drafting productivity and
better. IG and M-D customers paid for their investments
in a year, and they made huge profits in the second year.
IG and M-D were engineers, and they didn't lie in their
marketing approaches. AutoCAD lied, and they ac***ulated
huge numbers of CAD-interested and automation-interested
converts.
It took years until ACAD was run on 32 bit machines, and
they couldn't even achieve 1.5 times manual productivity
prior to the 32 bit machines. That bumped them up to two
times manual productivity, which then had digital benchmarks
from M-D and IG at better than 4 times manual productivity.
Together M-D and IG had better than fifty percent of the
CAD market. ArchiCad and Computervision were there too.
ACAD stopped badmouthing the 32-bit "big Iron" computers
and the 32-bit CAD SW products. They were now in the
32 bit world. They bit their lies.
The die was cast. ACAD was there to stay. Super-fast
hyped ACAD operators saved the day again for AutoCAD.
M-D tried to produce PC based CAD. BSI was a business
partner of 32 bit Intergraph, and BSI went to the superior
UNIX OS [which was knocked off by Microsoft], and to high
capacity 32 bit UNIX PCs. Microsoft was still in its cocoon.
> > > > > > >
BSI became fifty percent owned by the $5 billion sales
biggie, Intergraph, however, that percentage interest
seems to have diminished.
My question is this:
What is the history of the cor****ate owner****p of IG
and BSI as well as the history of their CAD SW products?
What is the history of the market in CAD? Who were the
innovators? Who lied to gain? Who told the truth?
Today, IG and BSI seem to be taking separate paths of owner****p,
technical and marketing philosophies, and product technologies.
What is the history of the owner****p of those firms and of
their CAD SW offerings?
Architects, like lemmings, bought into the palabra of AutoDesk,
and they gained huge market share. The honest people who were
the SW designers in AutoDesk took the available proceeds and
designed even better ACAD products.
Things happened that grossly affected the lives of countless
architects and engineers.
What happened?
Now its . . . . . . 2007. . . .
Who, out there, has the history?
Ralph Hertle
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