1995-2025 Archives: upFront.eZine & WorldCAD Access
This newsletter and blog recorded some of the history of the CAD industry, from 1995 to today.
All back issues of upFront.eZine newsletter are downloadable as annual collections, below
All postings from the WorldCAD Access blog are available as downloadable annuals below; alternatively, jump to archives of WorldCAD Access blog hosted byWordPress
About upFront.eZine. On May 1, 1995, I launched the upFront.eZine newsletter with the tagline “The Business of CAD.” It was the first independent email newsletter in the computer-aided design industry. Subsequently, I became the longest-running single editor of a CAD newsletter, and after 27 years I retired the newsletter in September 2022.
About WorldCAD Access. At the end of 2003, I launched the WorldCAD Access blog with the tagline “Talking about computers and design by Ralph Grabowski.” For 22 years, it was an important platform for late-breaking CAD news, such as live coverage of industry events. When Typepad shut down in September 2025, I repurposed the blog as a newsletter on Substack named WorldCAD Access | Technology + Culture.
Questions and help from grabowski@telus.net.
Archives of upFront.eZine Newsletter
Each year of downloads is either a ZIP file of .html files, or else a single PDF file for the year.
HTML files are viewed in Web browsers
PDF files are viewed in PDF viewers like Acrobat
These downloadable files are hosted on my pCloud account.
upFront.eZine: Decade of 1990
Fun fact! In the first few decades, I wrote upFront.eZine in Notepad and sent it out in plain ASCII format.
Archive for 1995 [ZIP file of HTML-formatted newsletters for entire year]
Archive for 1996
Archive for 1997
Archive for 1998
Archive for 1999
upFront.eZine: Decade of 2000
Fun fact! As I was casting about for a name for my new newsletter, I spied a copy of Alias Upfront software on my bookshelf, and I thought, “Yes, I want this newsletter to be upfront.” The ‘eZine’ portion comes from the abbreviation for “electronic magazine,” which was in common usage at the time, as was the up-and-down lettering.
Archive for 2000 [ZIP file of HTML-formatted newsletter for entire year]
Archive for 2001
Archive for 2002
Archive for 2003
Archive for 2004
Archive for 2005
Archive for 2006
Archive for 2007
Archive for 2008
Archive for 2009
upFront.eZine: Decade of 2010
Fun fact! For a time, upFront.eZine was translated by volunteers into French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and Russian.
Archive for 2010 [ZIP file of HTML-formatted newsletter for entire year]
Archive for 2011
Archive for 2012
Archive for 2013
Archive for 2014
Archive for 2015 [A single PDF file of all issues in the year]
Archive for 2016
Archive for 2017
Archive for 2018
Archive for 2019
upFront.eZine: Decade of 2020
Fun fact! The final issue of upFront.eZine in 2022 was celebrated with a limited edition coffee mug available to jsut subscribers.
Archives of WorldCAD Access Blog
Each download is a PDF file of all blog postings for the year. The PDF file is hosted on my pCloud account online. You can view the PDF files online or else download them. The average PDF file download size is 33MB.
WorldCAD Access Blog: Decade of 2000
Fun fact! The most prolific year was 2006, in which I wrote or hosted 654 blog postings.
Archive for 2003-2004 [A single PDF file of all postings that year(s)]
Archive for 2005
Archive for 2006
Archive for 2007
Archive for 2008
Archive for 2009
WorldCAD Access Blog: Decade of 2010
Fun fact! For a time, I ran two other blogs: S1 Photography and Gizmos and Gadgets. I eventually folded them into WorldCAD Access.
Archive for 2010 [A single PDF file of all postings that year]
Archive for 2011
Archive for 2012
Archive for 2013
Archive for 2014
Archive for 2015
Archive for 2016
Archive for 2017
Archive for 2018
Archive for 2019
WorldCAD Access Blog: Decade of 2020
Fun fact! Over the years, I wrote and hosted a total of 5,161 blog postings on WorldCAD Access.
Archive for 2020 [A single PDF file of all postings that year]
Archive for 2021
Archive for 2022
Archive for 2023
Archive for 2024
Archive for 2025
Fun fact! The final blog posting on WorldCAD Access — “Science and Mechanics in 1961” — took place on August 18, 2025, followed by the news from Typepad that the blogging platform was shutting down permanently.