Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc.

Company type	Public
Industry	Software
Founded	January 30, 1982; 44 years ago (1982-01-30)
Founders	John Walker Dan Drake
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, United States
Key people	Andrew Anagnost (CEO)
Products	AutoCAD, Revit, Maya
Revenue	1,710,000,000 United States dollar (2010)
Number of employees	14,300 (2026)
Website	autodesk.com

Autodesk, Inc. is an American software company based in San Francisco, California. It makes computer programs that people use to design buildings, machines, films, and other things.

The company is known for a program called AutoCAD. Architects and engineers use AutoCAD to draw plans for buildings and machines.

History

Autodesk was started in 1982 by John Walker and 15 other programmers. They put in $60,000 to start the company.

AutoCAD was released in December 1982.

In 1985, Autodesk became a public company.

By 1989, the company was making more than $100 million each year.

In 2002, Autodesk bought Revit Technology. In 2006, Autodesk bought Alias.

In 2022, Autodesk moved its main office from San Rafael, California to San Francisco.

In 2025, Autodesk laid off 1,350 workers. In 2026, the company laid off about 1,000 more workers.

Products

Autodesk's main product is AutoCAD. Architects and engineers use AutoCAD to draw plans for buildings and machines.

Other Autodesk products include:

• Revit — used to design buildings.
• Maya — used to make 3D animation for movies and video games.
• 3ds Max — used to make 3D animation for movies and video games.
• Inventor — used to design machines and parts.
• Fusion — used to design and make products.

Autodesk's software has been used to design the One World Trade Center and cars made by Tesla.

The software has also been used to make special effects for movies including Avatar, Titanic, and Inception.

References

Other websites

• Official website