The MasterViaCAD site provides a variety of resources available to learn and improve your productivity with ViaCAD, TurboCAD Mac, and SharkCAD collectively known as PunchCAD. Resources include videos, tutorials, tips, add-on files, and other content. The site also serves as a means to access Work in Progress builds, betas, and for beta users to submit bugs.

The MasterViaCAD site is maintained by Evolution Software LLC. Evolution Software has a long history with PunchCAD starting with its founder Tim Olson. Tim founded CADSoft Solutions in 1994 after a distinguished career as Chief Engineer for Lockheed’s Advanced Design Methods team which created one of the first workstation based CAD systems for aircraft design and analysis.


History of PunchCAD
ViaCAD's first commercial release appeared under the name CADD Pro in 1995. The first release (build 100) was created by CADSoft Solutions Inc (CSI) of Fort Worth Texas. This was one of the first precision solid modelers with feature based associativity on the Mac and shortly moved over to Windows. It also has a unique implementation of the Drafting Assistant(TM), a technology licensed from Ashlar which CSI extended further into 3D with smart snapping of solid modeling features. CADSoft Solutions would leverage the technology by rebranding for companies such as Dimensional Impressions, RevWare, Ashlar (Vellum Solids, Argon, Xenon, Cobalt), and IMSI (TurboCAD Mac). In 2006, CSI was acquired by Punch! Software where the products were renamed as ViaCAD and Shark. In 2010, Punch! Software was acquired by Encore Software a division of Navarre. Later Encore was acquired by IMSI Design who now own all rights associated with PunchCAD.

PunchCAD’s history and derivative products included:

—PunchCAD (ViaCAD, SharkCAD, TurboCAD Mac) distributed by IMSI Design
—Shark LT, Shark, Shark FX (distributed by Encore)
—ViaCAD 2D, ViaCAD 2D/3D, ViaCAD Pro (distributed by Encore)
—TurboCAD Mac Pro, Deluxe, Designer v7(distributed by IMSI)
—TurboCAD Mac V1, V2, V3 (distributed by IMSI)
—PinDot Design System (distributed by InvaCARE/RevWare)
—Score! Solids (distributed by Dimensional Impressions)
—Vellum Neon,Argon, Xenon, Cobalt V5 (distributed by Ashlar)
—Vellum Solids 98, 99, 2000 (distributed by Ashlar)
—AeroPack (distributed by DarCorp)
—AeroCAD (distributed by DarCorp)
—Concepts Unlimited (distributed by CADSoft Solutions Inc)
—CADD Lite, CADD Pro (distributed by CADSoft Solutions Inc)