The Autodesk File

Bits of History, Words of Experience

Edited by
John Walker

Frames edition of this document.
Other editions, some suitable for reading offline.

Introduction
Working Paper
- Introduction
- Background
- Which brings me to...
- General development strategy
- Form of organization
- Mode of operation
- Product development cycle
- Money and management
- Commitments of time
- The nature of potential products
- Hardware and system strategy
- Why get involved?
- Nitty-gritty
- What do we do next
- Agenda
Information Letter 1
- Structure of the business
- The issue of liability
- Changes after the business is running
- Terminating products
- What to call the company
- How much of a share to buy
- Order of magnitude financial figures
- The role of MSL principals
- The promise of this venture
- Responsiveness
- Philosophy
- Potential Products for MSP
Information Letter 2
- Alternate forms of organisation
- New participants
- Resumes
- ``Edges''
- Nightmare
- What's going on
What to Name the Company
Information Letter 3
- The business entity
- Issuance of shares
- Buying equipment
- Working capital
- Stock options
- Personal holding companies
- Conflicts of interest
- New people
- Names, names, names
- Paperwork
- Next meeting
- Proposed Organization Plan for MSP
Information Letter 4
- New organization plan
- General meeting
- Plans: Incorporation
- Technical progress
- Technical plans
Initial Stock Distribution
Information Letter 5
- Progress Organising the Company
- Changes from Original Organisation Plan
- What Happens Next
- Just a Few More Little Things
- Regular Meetings
- Purchasing
- Micro-CAD Progress
- Autodesk Progress
- Other Product Progress
- Product Polish and Packaging
- Subchapter S Election Alternative
- Autodesk Products
- Autodesk Work Distribution
Information Letter 6
- Marketing Progress
- IBM PC
- File Transfer
- Offsite Backup
- Floppy Discs
- 68000 System Prospects
- Medical Software Deal
- Coming to Terms with the 8086
- Black Hole Alert
- Monthly Meeting-Subchapter S Form
- Autodesk Status
- Communicator Status
- Random Bits
Information Letter 7
- Where We Are and Where We Are Going
- Autodesk Status
- QBASIC86 Progress
- MicroCAD Status
- Window Progress
- Task Lists
- Conference System Notes
- Organization Details
- C
- Random Bits
- July General Meeting Minutes
- Future agendas
- Auto Book Notes
Information Letter 8
- Other Items
August 1982 Meeting
- Changes in Participation
- Minutes and Financial Report
- Progress Reports
- Random Business
- Project Discussions
- Appendix
AutoCAD-80 Development Log
1982 Annual Meeting
Quality Department Priorities
- Development of Specifications
- Qualification Testing
- Test Management
- Discrepancy Logging
- Release Certification
- Regression Testing
- Cost of Quality
Meetings: December '82, January '83
- December Meeting
- January Meeting
- Summary of Decisions Taken
February 1983 Meeting
- Minutes and Financial Report
- Board of Directors
- Project Reports
- Trade Shows
- Manpower
- Summary of Decisions
March 1983 Meeting
- Odd Jobs
- Software Control Policies
June 1983 Meeting
AutoCAD Wish List
- Introduction
- High priority ``quick kills''
- High priority larger items
- Lower priority items
- Questionable items
Crisis Letter
John Walker's Business Plan
- Organisation
- Budgeting
- Priorities-Marketing Division
- Priorities-Operations Division
- Priorities-Technical Division
- Technical Project Management
- Salary Scales
Proposed Autodesk Organization
- Problems
- Solutions
- Proposed Structure
- Recommendations
- Job Descriptions
July 1983 Meeting
- Attendees
- Summary of Management Meeting: Dan Drake
- Financial Report: John Walker
- Marketing Report: Mike Ford
- More Marketing: John Walker
- International Sales
- Corporate Status Report
- Operational Report: John Kern
- AutoCAD-86 Report: Keith
- AutoCAD-80 Report: John
- Miscellaneous
- Personnel
- Equipment List
Low Rent 3D
Electric Malcolm
October 1983 Meeting
Piece of Cake
Information Letter 10
Information Letter 11
- Party Time
- What's Going On Here
- The Slingshot and Success
The Deal on the Table
AutoCAD Lite
Taxes and Such
- Warrants
- Stock Options
- Alternative Minimum Tax
- Publicly Traded Stock
- Insiders and Rule 16(b)
Why Lisp?
Number One
Prime Time
- Reply Time
Initial Public Offering
- General Background
- Product Strategy
- Products
- The Toilet Announcement
- Marketing Strategy
- The Entire Prospectus
- Sleazy Motel Roach Hammer Awards
Surplus Value
- Taxes
- Investments
- Greed and Fear
- Beyond the Lock-up Period
Information Letter 12
- Mid-Game
- Burning Questions Of Our Movement
- What Business Is the Company In?
- Product Style
- What do we do next?
- The Next AutoCAD
- The American Dream
Time of Turbulence
- Memo to everybody
- Remarks at the company meeting
Speech at Silverado
Super Programmers
CAD: the Heart of Computer Science
- What is Computer Aided Design?
- What Should a CAD System Be?
- What Does Simulation Have To Do With It?
- What Do You Do To Get There?
- The Heart of Computer Science
The Computer Revolution
- Abstract
- Background
- The Evolution Of Computer Interfaces
- Attempts To Extend the Interface
- ``Go Do'' Considered Shameful
- Son Of Batch
- Building Subservient Systems
- Summary
AutoBits
- Job Titles
- AutoSketch: Not Insane
- Autodesk Technical Seminars
- CAD: The Final Frontier
- Marinchip Defeats IBM
- Dear Jim Meadlock...
- Yet Wah 3D
- Spine Police
- VHSIC-Based Product Stuns Industry
- What Is 3D What
- AutoShield
- The Guts of a New Machine
- The Bozo Filter
- High Performance Bicycles
- A Journey Not to Forget
- AutoThing
Flat-out Programming
Hardware Lock Debater's Guide
Information Letter 13
- Ground rules
- The management switch
Cadetron and Solid Modeling
- How Do We Do It?
- Product Positioning
- How Does All This Really Work?
Removing the Hardware Lock
Urgent Fury
- The Menu Bar
- Extended Object Selection
- Menu Item Repetition
- Multiple Command Modifier
- Command Redefinition
- Dialogue-Oriented Commands
The Portable Data Base
- Background
- The Binary I/O Package
- Modifying AutoCAD
- Compatibility status summary
- Upper and lower case
Breaking the 3D Logjam
Jeremiad
Urgent Worry
The Golden Age of Engineering
Cosmic Perspective
External Tanks
Source Distribution
The Morning After
Glasnost
Where's It All Going?
Xanadu
- Ted Nelson Joins Autodesk
Bored of Directors
Valedictory
L'Envoi: the First Six Years
Technological Leadership
- AutoCAD Release 10
- AutoCAD For The Macintosh
- AutoCAD Release 11
- AutoCAD AEC
- AutoSketch
- AutoShade
- User Interfaces
- Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations
Through the Looking Glass
- User interaction generations
- What next?
- Through the screen to cyberspace
- Building cyberspace
- Should Autodesk lead?
AutoCAD Expo Moscow
Golden Hammer
One Hundred Million Dollars
The New Technological Corporation
- Theme 1: The time value of money
- Theme 2: Leverage vs. debt
- Theme 3: The talent-constrained enterprise
- Theme 4: Quantum economics
- Theme 5: Equilibrium and efficient markets
- Variation 1: The New Technological Corporation
- Variation 2: What to do with the money?
- Variation 3: Competitive strategies
- Conclusions and recommendations
Generic Software Acquisition
Why Cellular Automata?
- Rudy's Answer
- John's Answer
Understanding AMIX
- The Information Age
- Markets
- Information Markets
- Obvious Markets
- Non-critical Issues
- Why AMIX?
Batting .300
We'll Return, After This Message
Caustic Moment
- A Brief History Of IGES
- Goals and Strategy
- Implementation Notes
- Additional ADS Requirements
- User Notes
- Summary and Future Directions
- Conclusion
The Hardware Lock Strikes Back
``Autodesk Arrogance''
Why Molecular Modeling?
- Filter 1: It stands to benefit from increasing compute power
- Filter 2: It is central to emerging technologies
- Conclusion
Whither AutoCAD?
- Introduction
- Autodesk as High-End Vendor
- The Business of Autodesk
- An Opportunity
- The High End: What is it?
- Traditional CAD/CAM
- The View from the Top
- Real Users buy Desktop CAD
- Drafting vs the Total Solution
- The Autodesk Customer
- The Turnkey Customer
- Integration as the Key
- Design/Manufacturing Process
- The Total Solution
- The Reality
- The Market
- Mechanical Design Automation
- AutoCAD Designer
- Technical Content
- AutoCAD
- Conclusions
- Final Words
Nanotechnology in Manufacturing
- What's Been Happening
- CPU Performance
- Oh Wow
- Oh Well
- Oh Shit
- Oh Yeah!
- Technological Transitions
- Five Industrial Revolutions
- Metre Scale
- Metres To Millimetres
- Millimetres To Micrometres
- Micrometres To Nanometres
- Plenty Of Room
- Writing With Atoms
- Molecular Engineering
- Many Challenges-But Many Paths To Follow
- Steps Along the Way: Molecular Electronics
- Bacteriorhodopsin Optical Memory
- Sixth Industrial Revolution: Molecular Engineering
- Seventh Industrial Revolution: Replicating Machines
- The Argument For Design
Max Q
- Management by lack of alternatives
- A very different world
- Max Q
- Modern Problems
- Autodesk confronts an uncertain future
- Summary of recommendations
- Conclusion
Information Letter 14
- Prologue: The Quaint Eighties
- Introduction
- Background
- ``The Game Has Changed''
- The Game Has Changed Again
- Modern Times
- Modern Problems
- The Risks Of Caution
- The Nightmare Scenario
- Marginalia
- Business Development
- Winning
- A Bodyguard Of Fears
- Conclusion
- Epilogue: The Final Days
View from the Ridge
Valuing Corporate Image
Simulation Isn't Reality
The New Autodesk
- Goals of the Restructuring
- Types of organizations
- Product Lines
- Responsibilities of VPs of Marketing and Technology
- Review of Employees in a Matrix Organization
- Questions and Answers
- Items to watch for future modification
- The New Autodesk: June 28, 1991 Change Pages
Choose Wisely
- Whose hand on the tiller?
- How much, and when?
- Possible and impossible.
Added Value
Stating the Problem
Al Green Retires
Incentives, Deterrence, and Defence
- The CD-ROM
- AutoCAD Global Village
- Your Suggestion Here
Searching for a New CEO
- Assumptions
- Requirements
- Process
- Conclusion
European Software Centre
The Dark Night of the Soul
Reporter at Work
- Title
- Introduction
- Interview transcript
- Anatomy of a smear
AutoCAD for Windows
MicroTimes
New Leadership for Autodesk
Farewell, Xanadu
- Autodesk Press Release
- AMIX Press Release
- Message from Carol Bartz
Micro Engineering Solutions Acquisition
- Len Rand on the MES Acquisition
- Press Release
- Q&A On MES Acquisition
Patent Nonsense
Programs Are Programs
- World War Four
- Background-Is Software a Business?
- It's a Program, Stupid
- Let's Crunch Some Numbers
- Does This Sound Familiar? 1
- Does This Sound Familiar? 2
- Does This Sound Familiar? 3
- Does This Sound Familiar? 4
- Does This Sound Familiar? 5
- Does This Sound Familiar? 6
- Getting There
- The Enabling Prerequisite
- Summary and Conclusion
AutoCAD LT
- Press Release
- Midcourse Corrections
- AutoCAD LT Questions and Answers
Creation/Evolution
Ten Years After
Before Autodesk
- Basic Development Strategy
- Details-The 68000 Node Board
- Details-Software Conversion Plans
- Background-Why not the 9995/99000?
- Background-Why not the Z8001?
- Details-What about the Z8000 software?
- Details-What does this do to other projects?
- Details-Whither the 9900 and its customer base?
- Details-Marketing strategy
- Details-Who pays and who gets what?
- Details-Things to be resolved
The View from Sweden
Autodesk Trivia Quiz
Financial Results
Autodesk Stock Price History
Product Release History
- Autodesk Product Initial Shipment Dates
- AutoCAD Version Release Dates
- Kelvin's Holiday Hacks
- AutoCAD Major Feature Release History
About this Edition
Contents
Index

Editor: John Walker