After I was given the original nozzle that was in one of the first sample drawings of AutoCAD from 1984 (An Epic Piece of Autodesk History –The Nozzle), there were many discussions on old sample files. It’s Throwback Thursday, so in the spirit of that what is you favorite AutoCAD sample file or ones that bring the most memories for you. I spend my current job mostly looking forward in to the future of design and technology, but it is also so much fun to look back on where we have been especially since I was a customer using AutoCAD 20 years ago and have many memories. Looking back over the past 36 years of Autodesk and seeing how much things have changed gets me excited about the possibilities where we will all be in the next 36 years.

Here are some of the sample files from AutoCAD 1.x to today covering 36 years of AutoCAD history.

Azimuth

Butterfly House

Campus

Chair

Chevy

Color Wheels (old and new true color)

Digitizer Tablet Overlay

Hummer

Linkrods

Nozzle

Robot

Sextant

Shuttle

Shuttle Columbia

Solar System in 1:1 scale (and all planets and lunar lander with plaque)

SPCA Plan

Stadium

Sydney Opera House

Welding Fixture

Willhome

So let me know in the comments what your favorite AutoCAD official sample drawing or one with the most memories for you and the release it was from. I plan to post many of these drawings files along with any known history.

Cheers,
Shaan