From ASME San Francisco Section Nov/Dec 1997 Newsletter:
Recap of the Autodesk Meeting
by Brandon Muramatsu
Our first meeting of the year was held at Autodesk Corporate Headquarters on September 16, 1997. Roy and I began the meeting with a brief presentation in which we discussed the changing nature of design and its affect on the engineer in industry. We envision a time in the not too distant future in which engineering theory will be delivered and learned at the same time an engineer is designing a product. This will bring to fruition the anytime, anywhere, by anyone learning paradigm made possible by the emergence of the global network.
Our featured speaker, Mark Sawyer, Manager of the Data Management group at Autodesk, gave an interesting presentation about the changing nature of design in which management of data -- CAD drawings, spreadsheet calculations, procurement information, vendor specifications, etc. -- is becoming more important. The re-engineering of companies and accelerating pace of product development are pushing the boundaries and capabilities of "traditional" processes such as procurement and design. Data management systems are one way to ease these concerns. Mark ended his presentation with a discussion of concurrent engineering that generated the most interesting discussion of the evening.