Before the invention of AutoCAD, Drafters used to do all of their plans by hand. Huge warehouses housed massive tables adorned with measuring tools and drawing devices. Then came 1982 and the launch of AutoCAD.

Autodesk was demonstrated at the 1982 Comdex and released in December of that year. By March 1986 AutoCAD had become the leading CAD program worldwide and was Autodesk’s flagship product.

The emergence of the computer effected the printing and drawing industries like no other causing swathes of professions to literally disappear overnight. This documentary at the New York Times highlights this situation perfectly: the last day of hot metal type-setting, you can almost feel the emotion as employees are having to completely retrain.

Drafters at work before AutoCAD