A History of CAD in the United Kingdom: The Cambridge Phenomenon

This article tells the history of CAD research and commercial activities in Cambridge, U.K., from the early 1960s to the late 1980s. As well as a brief overview of the early research at Cambridge University, this article describes the government intervention that led to the creation of the Computer-Aided Design Centre (CADCentre) R&D establishment. It also explains how the university and the CADCentre became a center of excellence and the focus for U.K. CAD developments. It tells the stories behind numerous commercial software products that emerged from the CADCentre and the people and companies that developed them.