AutoCAD 1.0 (1982)
Autodesk released AutoCAD 1.0, putting engineering drawing tools on personal computers. Before that, drawings lived on paper in drafting rooms. The software let engineers create, edit, and store drawings digitally.
Drafting work migrated to computers over the following decade as CAD became standard.
Digital drawings replaced paper, but the models stayed 2D and the knowledge stayed locked in views and dimensions.
AutoCAD digitized the drawings; Backflip now reads those drawings and rebuilds the geometry as editable 3D models. It's the second step of the same digitization.
