Who is the oldest CAD vendor still operating? My guess is Intergraph (originally named M&S Computing), based in Huntsville Alabama. Its first product was real-time software for NASA, sometime in the 1960s -- which makes it at least 40 years old.
Who is the longest serving employee in CAD? That might belong to the staff at ACS Software, who have been there since the company's beginning in 1981. Debbie Simpson of ACS sent a press release yesterday with this footer:
Did you know that 2009 marks ACS Software's 28th year in business?! That's right, ACS has been around since 1981 -- one year before Autodesk opened their doors.
ACS Software develops the AutoEDMS Document Management & Workflow Solution for workgroups, and they just released the SR4 update for v6.5.
David Weisberg's book, The Engineering Design Revolution (at www.cadhistory.net) shows Intergraph starting in 1969. This is 9 years after McAuto, 6 years after United Computing, and 2 years after SDRC, all of which are predecessors to today's Siemens PLM Solutions.
But then, is Intergraph the oldest CAD company still operating under its original name? No. It was M&S Computing until 1980.
The oldest CAD company continuously operating under the same name and corporate structure would probably be Manufacturing and Consulting Services, which was founded in 1971.
As to the longest serving employee in CAD -- that's probably Pat Hanratty, who founded MCS. Other than him, it'd probably be someone at Siemens PLM, such as George Allen, Chuck Grindstaff, Vic Hambridge, Chris Mehling, Paul Sicking or Wil Valenzuela.
Posted by: Evan Yares | Jul 28, 2009 at 08:21 AM
Ralph, we date back to 1963. But to Evan's note, definitely not the oldest under the original name!
As far as the longest serving employee in CAD...we have some who have been here 30-40 years. John Baker is one who has been with us almost 30 years and using NX (aka Unigraphics) for 32 years.
There is a museum on PLM World's website and a timeline on ours for more info.
[Posted by ralphg on behalf of Dora Smith,
Director, Global Social Media]
Posted by: ralphg | Jul 29, 2009 at 10:34 AM