AutoCADderWednesday, August 16, 2006
Historical Autodesk software
Most CAD users know today's Autodesk applications and understand that Autodesk is no longer the "AutoCAD company". Inventor, Revit, Architectural Desktop have hundreds thousands of users; beside 3ds max, there are lots of different Autodesk Media applications.
It is not so known that back in the 1990's, there were also many non-CAD (and often obscure) applications in the Autodesk software portfolio.
After that Autodesk invested in the Hypercube company, it brought its HyperChem software to the market in 1992, to leave it again in 1994. HyperChem was a Windows application for molecular modeling.
The title of the most obscure software in the Autodesk history could be probably awarded to "Chaos--The Software" (James Gleick's Chaos--The Software). Chaos was a DOS application for creating and exploring fractal geometry, visualization of fractal mathematics and algorithms. The Chaos software seems to be still available on the SJSU web.
More popularity had gained the Animator and Animator Pro applications - DOS-based 2D animation and painting software which was quite widely used for desktop computer animation of that time. Its file formats FLI and FLC still live in many current graphic applications.
It is not so known that back in the 1990's, there were also many non-CAD (and often obscure) applications in the Autodesk software portfolio.
After that Autodesk invested in the Hypercube company, it brought its HyperChem software to the market in 1992, to leave it again in 1994. HyperChem was a Windows application for molecular modeling.
The title of the most obscure software in the Autodesk history could be probably awarded to "Chaos--The Software" (James Gleick's Chaos--The Software). Chaos was a DOS application for creating and exploring fractal geometry, visualization of fractal mathematics and algorithms. The Chaos software seems to be still available on the SJSU web.
More popularity had gained the Animator and Animator Pro applications - DOS-based 2D animation and painting software which was quite widely used for desktop computer animation of that time. Its file formats FLI and FLC still live in many current graphic applications.
