In the process, he became the organization’s computer guru. At the same time, he was working as a consultant for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona developing an accounting system for the foundation. Starting in 1977, Riddle began working on a graphic program he called Interact. He produced some utility programs for Walker and Drake that they included with their early systems.
By this time, Riddle was a selfemployed computer consultant. Previously he had been a consultant involved in computer-aided manufacturing. Dan Drake, who was to be a key player in this story, joined Walker at Marinchip in 1979. Meanwhile, out in California, John Walker, who had a BS in general engineering from Lehigh University, started a computer business in 1977, Marinchip Systems, which provided systems built around the TI 9900 microprocessor. About the same time Riddle began working at a local Computerland store where they provided him with free computer time to do with as he wanted. Riddle felt that anything they were doing on this project with the Computervision system could be done on a microcomputer-based system. The company was engaged in doing steel detailing for the Palo Verde nuclear power plant in Arizona. The company had a $250,000 Computervision system that, although capable of 3D work, was used strictly for 2D drafting. It didn’t work very well, but it convinced him that computers were going to be an important part of his life.Īfter attending Arizona State University, Riddle went to work for a steel fabricator where he had his first exposure to CAD. In junior high school, he built his first computer out of relays. Mike Riddle was born in California with computers in his veins. Even under Bartz, there were several well defined periods of growth as well as some fairly stagnant years. There were the “Early Years” which covers the time from when Autodesk was founded as a loose programmer-centric collaborative in early 1982 to the company’s initial public offering in 1985, the “Adolescent Years” during which the company grew rapidly but seemed to do so without any clear direction and the “Mature Years.” The beginning of the latter phase began when Carol Bartz became president and CEO in 1992 and continues to the current time. Autodesk as a company, has gone through several distinct phases of life.
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