The first commercial release was as CADD Pro (build 100) by CADSoft Solutions in 1994. This was heavily influenced by some work we did in the 80’s at Lockheed creating an integrated CAD/CAE system used for conceptual design of F16 advanced derivatives, F22, F35, NASP, A-12/etc called ACAD.
I really liked the Drafting Assistant by Dr Martin Newell, licensed the patent (patent was later declared invalid), and integrated it into CADD Pro. I extended the implementation to work with 3D curves, surfaces, and solids which attracted the attention of Ashlar. I created a rebrand of CADD Pro which Ashlar then sold as Vellum Solids. I terminated the contract after the second term but still retained the original rights to create the Concepts Unlimited brand of products.
Shortly after we released Concepts Unlimited, I did another rebrand of that product for Bob Mayer and IMSI as TurboCAD Mac. We also did rebrands for AeroCADD, Aeropack, and the PinDot Design system.
>> Rutan used it to make some of his plane
Burt was familiar with my work at Lockheed through some his classified work for Scaled Composites. I spent some time with his team training them how to use AeroPack which they used for preliminary design. They used CATIA for production work. Burt did all the concept work using Shark, you can see used in the Discovery documentary showing his initial designs for SpaceShip One.
>> that Darcorp aeropack add on for Shark.
Lockheed was a big sponsor of AIAA student design competitions. Dr Jan Roskum (founder of DARCorp) student teams from the University Kansas always did well. One year they won and instead of prize money elected to create a student CAD/CAE lab with 10 seats of ACAD. They used ACAD and AAA in their lab to teach aerospace engineering students how to design and analyze aircraft. When I left Lockheed, Darcorp gave us a contract to create AeroPack which has some tools specific for aircraft design and better integrated with AAA.
Later, I sold the company to Punch Software, who was then acquired by Encore Software. Encore Software was a division of Navarre, who made a really bad inventory buy of fit bit watches. It was a huge inventory that did not sell and ultimately lead to them to filing bankruptcy and selling of the assets. IMSI then bought the Encore asset in bankruptcy proceedings which is where the products now stand at build 1610:)
Edited by user Tuesday, December 6, 2022 11:38:24 PM(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified
