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A Little Bit of History: The Original Visio Business Plan

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One of our developers pointed me towards this great case study of a business drawing program called Mainline, which eventually was renamed to Visio. Other early names of the company and product include Axon, ShapeWare, and Graw (see https://visio.mvps.org/History.htm for more interesting bits of Visio history). As you might imagine, diagrams were a pretty key part of the pitch in the business plan:

    

I liked this disclaimer from the cover as well:

This document makes reference to Microsoft Windows 3.1, an unannounced product of Microsoft Corporation. Nothing contained in this document should be construed as an announcement of said product.

It is probably ok to talk about Windows 3.1 now.

This is all from way before my time. I started working at Visio well after the Microsoft acquisition.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 02, 2008
    I am a new comer to Visio (at least in the depth that I am now looking at it).   As a Chemical Engineer, I am familiar with the "Process Engineering" Stencils and had worked with them occasionally dating back as far as Visio 4 "Techical" (am I the only person to notice that these Sencils have not really changed in all that time?).   Getting back to the topic at hand; I see that "CAD" (Computer Aided Drafting) is included in this business plan.  I have been shocked at the power lurking in the ShapeSheet to produce true parametric (though 2D) drawings.   I am wondering if the dream has long expired or has just been forgotten.   I am wondering if you might be able to direct me to a Blog (on a personal note this is the FIRST Blog that I have ever done ANYWHERE) that might discuss the use of Visio for Techical Drawings, Specifically P&IDs and Pressure Vessel Drawings.   So ends my first ever Blog (I don't feel different).

  • Anonymous
    May 30, 2008
    One of our developers pointed me towards this great case study of a business drawing program called Mainline , which eventually was renamed to Visio. Other early names of the company and product include Axon, ShapeWare, and Graw (see http://visio.mvps.org/History.ht

  • Anonymous
    June 04, 2008
    One of our developers pointed me towards this great case study of a business drawing program called Mainline , which eventually was renamed to Visio. Other early names of the company and product include Axon, ShapeWare, and Graw (see http://visio.mvps.org/History.ht