Why AI Is The Future Of CAD Software

Tuesday, 21 October 2025, 9:33 am
Article: Hugh Grant

When it comes to planning a project, details must be at the forefront of the project design process. Mistakes during the planning phase means that the project will produce a poor result, even if the project’s plan is followed down to the letter. To maintain high levels of accuracy, project designers have utilized a controlled workspace for decades. 70 years ago, being accurate was synonymous with using a drafting table. These drafting tables came in a variety of sizes, depending on the nature of the project, but certain tools are staples for these drafting tables. Alongside drawing pens, project designers used scale rules, French curves, and templates to get high levels of precision.

However, in the 1980’s, there was a massive shift in how project designers modeled projects due to the release of the Dimension III Systems from Calma. This hardware was the very first of its kind and digitally mapped projects with the proprietary operating system (OS) CDOS and PADL-2 software. Rather than letting the ink dry, project designers now utilized a stylus and saved project files. Although novel and different, this major innovation would reinvent project design for the next few decades. The price of progress was also very hefty though. This Unix System had an initial price at $100,000 for the hardware and an additional $50,000 per seat for the PADL-2 software.

Just 14 years later, the next generation of Computer Aided Design (CAD) technology came out thanks to Silicon Graphics Inc. They released the Indigo2 IMPACT R10000, which had solid improvements over their predecessor. Firstly, they revolutionized CAD software with their PTC Pro/ENGINEER software. This new software had more rule-based constraints and parameters, which made it easier to operate. Similarly, this software was compatible with mouse inputs rather than needing a stylus. They also changed the pricing model to have a larger upfront cost of $138,000 but a much shallower cost per for the CAD software at just $14,000. Lastly, the model itself was physically smaller and much more compact, making it easier to have multiple types of this unit in a space compared to the Dimension III Systems. All these quality-of-life changes made this technology more usable and opened up a larger consumer base for CAD software.

However, just around the same time as the release of the Indigo2 Impact R10000, another innovation to CAD software was released by Acer. The Aspire (575LB) was a compact computer model that looked much more similar to the computers of the modern day. Most importantly, this hardware ran on Windows 95 and Linux, rather than having its own proprietary OS. This is important because it was not only easier to pick up from a user perspective, but that savings could be reinvested into the cost of owning a unit. The companion CAD software, SOLIDWORKS 95, cost only $4,000 per seat rather than the $14,000 of the Indigo2 IMPACT R10000. This software itself was also much more intuitive that any of its predecessors, which made it easier to pick up and easier to get value from. Because of the easier software, lower costs, and greater sense of familiarity, SOLIDWORKS 95 was incredibly accessible and exploded in popularity.

In the 3 decades following its initial release, SOLIDWORKS software has amassed over 8 million users and is used on projects from submarines to doorbell cameras. Fortunately, the next innovation for CAD software is on the horizon in the form of artificial intelligence (AI). SOLIDWORKS software has the companion AI called Aura, which is both a generative AI and large language model. This gives it the ability to learn from user behavior and provide predictive solutions based on that behavior. It also has a more active role in designing, as it can turn images into CAD sketches. Ultimately, regardless of what you use SOLIDWORKS software for, taking advantage of Aura AI is the best way to make sure you get ahead with your project design process.

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