Future of CAD: What about the Internet?

I just finished reading Jeff Ray’s (SolidWorks CEO) article on the future of CAD and I cannot help noticing that something that should already have been in the past of CAD is not even prominently featured in its immediate future: the Internet!

Here is a question: how different would CAD systems be today if the Internet never happened?

My own answer: not very different.

How can that be? Everything in our life is different now that the Internet and the Web are mainstream but CAD is substantially the same as it would have been anyway.

What do you think?

Cristiano Sacchi

Comments

[Matt Lombard]

Some people want to believe that communication and collaboration and connection are responsible for everything. But its not true. Design happens in an individuals head, not in the collective psyche. There are still some tasks on this electronic earth that require individual competence and skill, and I think design is one of those things.

Not everything you do in CAD is design. Some is just bookkeeping. Still, the use of the internet within CAD applications is overrated.

[cad blog]

I'm glad that this comment is still open. I have some comments I want to share on your other post but it's already closed. It could be an additional traffic if you still left them open because you make good and engaging posts.

I'm already an ex-CAD engineer and don't concentrate much on my CAD Blog because this is a very small and specialized niche. Although the advertising pays good, it's hard to get much traffic unlike other niches.

And about the internet and future of cad, when internet was not yet popular, local area network was already there. It is almost the same where cad operators can collaborate in distant places whereas the internet can be done worldwide.