Tools & manufacturing · 1963

Computer-aided design

Drawing with a light pen on a screen the computer understands.

Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad at MIT in 1963 let users draw constrained geometry interactively. CAD replaced drafting boards and feeds CNC machines and 3D printers directly.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Numerical control 1952
Transistor 1947

What it led to 1

3D printing (stereolithography) 1984

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Computation per constant dollar, 1850-2006 Latest: 7.3B million units of computer power per 2006 $ (2003) Source: Nordhaus 2007, Two Centuries of Productivity Growth in Computing, J. Econ. Hist. 67(1), Table 6