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SolidWorks was built before the Internet existed (believe it or not), so we didn’t have to worry about whether the URL was available. I remember playing around with word fragments on a legal pad when I was at the Daratech VAR Conference in 1994 and just liking how “solid” and “works” sounded together. Perhaps in an alternative universe, “SolidWorks” would retroactively sound as odd as these names above.
#Solidworks word software#
Our software vision, of course, wasn’t impacted by the name we chose for the business. When you’re brainstorming names, it’s always helpful to visualize how your ideas look in print. I vividly remember hanging these potential company names on the wall of my office to test which ones felt right. What you see above are some letterhead (remember letterhead?) mockups of possible company names before the emergence of the SolidWorks company name. “PowerCAD” sounds like a nutritional supplement you might mix in your protein shake. “OmniCAD” sounds like a nefarious conglomerate where a supervillain might work in the next “Iron Man” movie.
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SolidWorks Was Originally Named “Winchester Design Systems” Some of these mementos have never been publicly seen before, so you might even consider this post to be the launch of an unofficial SolidWorks Smithsonian. In the spirit of celebration of those 25 years, I’d like to share a few artifacts from my personal archives. But you all know the ending to that story. Skeptics told me over and over again that CAD would never work on a PC. Remarkable, huh? A leading technology publication is marveling over the wonders of a printer icon that you can click and get your computer to print! That’s a bit of historical context for the origin story of SolidWorks. UNIX forces workers to memorize and type a command from the command prompt.”
#Solidworks word windows#
“For example, Windows lets workers check the status of a print job by clicking on an icon and reading the job queue. “Microsoft can afford to develop ease-of-use features that UNIX systems don’t enjoy,” he wrote. At the time, there were at least 100 times more PCs than UNIX workstations, noted Wolfe, so Microsoft could spread its software development costs across a much broader base of customers. I saved the October 1995 issue, which features headlines such as “The Windows 95 Era Begins” and “Move Over Pro/E: The Next Generation Has Arrived” (which was a review of the first release of SolidWorks). Anyone remember Steve Wolfe’s influential “Computer Aided Design Report”?
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It was also the age of desktop publishing when industry news was formatted for paper booklets in 3-ring binders rather than the Internet. The idea of you buying software that you could run on your own personal computer was considered a fantasy. The CAD vendor sold you not only the hardware and software as part of a “turnkey system,” but also the official computer table and chair. SolidWorks disrupted the engineering world, taking the platform leap from UNIX workstations – which were only affordable to an elite few – to Microsoft Windows, which was available to nearly everyone.įor those of you born after the introduction of Windows, it’s worth noting that in the ancient 1980s, when I was a student at MIT’s CAD research lab, one seat of CAD could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years since we founded SolidWorks on December 30, 1993.
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Constantine Dokos, Scott Harris, Bob Zuffante, Mike Payne and Jon Hirschtick go over details in the first beta release of SolidWorks. Not shown: Tommy Li. EARLY DAYS: SolidWorks founders in 1994 (from front to back) Dr.