Computer aided design (CAD) market worldwide 2016-2028

Computer-aided design (CAD) market revenues have experienced slow but steady growth over the past couple of years, with annual totals increasing from about seven billion U.S. dollars in 2016 to around 7.5 in 2018. Forecasts suggest that the market will experience increased growth in the coming years, expanding to well over 11 billion dollars in annual revenue by 2023.

Computer-aided design

Unsurprisingly, CAD involves the use of specialized computer software to assist in the design of buildings and machinery. Three-dimensional design accounts for the majority of the industry’s revenue given the technology’s primary use in the fields of architecture and machinery design, but a small yet significant segment also focuses on 2D renderings of projects. The CAD market is highly associated with other similar software types such as computer-aided engineering (CAE) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). These various software families are often used in combination at various points throughout the digital design process.

CAD companies

The biggest names in the CAD market have typically been Autodesk and Dassault, both of which account for around a quarter of the industry’s total market share. In 2019 alone, Autodesk reported over 730 million dollars in revenue from its AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT products alone, highlighting the widespread usage of these tools in today’s manufacturing environment.