CAD software sits at the intersection of product design, engineering, manufacturing, architecture, and media production. Recent company disclosures show a large and increasingly recurring software market: Autodesk reported $7.206 billion in FY2026 revenue, Dassault Systèmes reported €6.24 billion for calendar 2025, and PTC reported $848 million in CAD product-data-authoring annual recurring revenue in its quarter ended December 28, 2024. The figures below keep each company’s reporting period, geography, and measurement basis explicit.
Contents
- Autodesk revenue and growth
- Product families and design use
- Geographic distribution
- Subscriptions, cloud, and contracted revenue
- Platform scale and recurring software
- CAD workforce and demand
Autodesk revenue and growth
Autodesk’s fiscal year ended January 31, 2026 provides one of the clearest current indicators of CAD software scale. Autodesk reported total revenue of $7.206 billion, up 18% year over year. Billings reached $7.771 billion, an increase of 30%, while cash flow from operating activities was $2.452 billion, up 53%. These are company-wide measures rather than CAD-only totals, but they establish the scale of the software platform that includes AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, manufacturing tools, and other design products. AUTODESK, INC. ANNOUNCES FISCAL 2026 FOURTH QUARTER RESULTS
The CAD-focused product families also grew during the same fiscal year:
- AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT generated $1.787 billion, up 14% year over year.
- The Manufacturing product family generated $1.379 billion, up 16%.
- The Design product type generated $5.980 billion, up 17% on a reported basis.
Autodesk’s fourth quarter ended January 31, 2026 was also larger than the prior-year quarter. AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT revenue was $478 million, up 17%; Manufacturing revenue was $381 million, up 20%; and total revenue was $1.957 billion, up 19%. The quarterly figures should not be treated as a separate annual market size, but they show the pace of reported activity at the end of FY2026. AUTODESK, INC. ANNOUNCES FISCAL 2026 FOURTH QUARTER RESULTS
Product families and design use
Autodesk’s product-family disclosures show that CAD-related demand is distributed across several professional disciplines. In FY2026, the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations (AECO) product family generated $3.583 billion, up 22% year over year. Manufacturing generated $1.379 billion, while AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT generated $1.787 billion. The Media and Entertainment product family generated $332 million, up 5%, and Other generated $125 million, up 6%. Final Definitive Proxy Document 2026
The two-year comparison below uses reported Autodesk revenue, not an independently calculated market estimate.
| Autodesk product family or type | FY2024 revenue | FY2025 revenue | FY2026 revenue or reported change |
|---|---|---|---|
| AECO | $2.580B | $2.937B, up 14% | $3.583B, up 22% |
| AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT | $1.462B | $1.572B, up 8% | $1.787B, up 14% |
| Manufacturing | $1.063B | $1.189B, up 12% | $1.379B, up 16% |
| Media and Entertainment | — | $315M, up 7% | $332M, up 5% |
| Design product type | $4.647B | — | $5.980B, up 17% |
The FY2024 and FY2025 values provide historical context for the FY2026 disclosures. Autodesk reported AECO revenue of $2.580 billion in FY2024 and $2.937 billion in FY2025. AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT rose from $1.462 billion in FY2024 to $1.572 billion in FY2025, while Manufacturing rose from $1.063 billion to $1.189 billion. Media and Entertainment revenue was $315 million in FY2025. Final Definitive Proxy Document 2026
Geographic distribution
Autodesk’s FY2026 revenue was distributed across three broad regions. The Americas generated $3.178 billion, up 17% year over year; Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) generated $2.794 billion, up 21%; and Asia-Pacific (APAC) generated $1.234 billion, up 11%. Within the Americas, the United States contributed $2.566 billion and countries classified as Other Americas contributed $612 million. Final Definitive Proxy Document 2026
Historical regional figures show growth across the reported periods. In FY2025, Autodesk generated $2.716 billion in the Americas, $2.307 billion in EMEA, up 13%, and $1.108 billion in APAC, up 9%. In FY2024, the Americas generated $2.438 billion and EMEA generated $2.042 billion. These regional totals describe Autodesk revenue by geography; they are not estimates of all CAD spending in those markets.
Subscriptions, cloud, and contracted revenue
Recurring commercial models are central to the current CAD software landscape. Autodesk reported $6.743 billion in subscription revenue for FY2026, up 18% year over year. Maintenance revenue was $33 million, down 20% from FY2025, and subscription plus maintenance revenue totaled $6.776 billion. Final Definitive Proxy Document 2026
Autodesk also reported $8.300 billion in remaining performance obligations as of January 31, 2026. The company expected to recognize $5.479 billion, or 66%, within the next 12 months, with the remaining $2.821 billion, or 34%, after that period. These are contracted obligations and recognition expectations, not forecasts of total future CAD industry revenue.
Other balance-sheet indicators point to the same contracted-revenue structure. Unbilled deferred revenue was $3.607 billion in the quarter ended January 31, 2026, up 28% year over year, while deferred revenue was $4.693 billion, up 14%.
Autodesk reported 7.79 million total subscriptions at the end of FY2025, an increase of approximately 516,000 during the year. After adjusting for the multi-user trade-in, the company reported 7.18 million subscriptions, an increase of approximately 471,000. The adjusted and unadjusted figures answer different measurement questions and should not be added together. AUTODESK, INC. ANNOUNCES FISCAL 2026 FOURTH QUARTER RESULTS
Platform scale and recurring software
Autodesk is not the only major CAD and product-lifecycle software provider reporting global scale. Dassault Systèmes reported more than 390,000 customers across 12 industries in calendar year 2025. It reported 12 brands, 188 sites worldwide, and approximately 25,000 employees, including more than 9,900 employees working in research and development. R&D represented 19.8% of revenue. Financial performance 2025
Dassault Systèmes reported €6.24 billion in total 2025 revenue, up 4% in constant currencies. Recurring revenue grew 6% and represented 82% of software revenue. Subscription revenue grew 11%, while 3DEXPERIENCE cloud revenue grew 10%. The company also reported a 32% operating margin, up 40 basis points. Constant-currency growth is a stated measurement basis and should not be read as growth in euros without adjustment.
PTC reported another recurring-revenue indicator for the quarter ended December 28, 2024. Its CAD product-data-authoring annual recurring revenue was $848 million, up 5% year over year as reported. On a constant-currency basis, the measure was $881 million, up 9%. The two values use different currency treatments, so they are not alternative totals to combine. Q1’25 FINANCIAL RESULTS
Together, these disclosures describe different aspects of CAD software economics: Autodesk reports subscriptions and remaining performance obligations, Dassault Systèmes reports recurring and subscription growth alongside customer and R&D scale, and PTC reports CAD product-data-authoring ARR. Because the definitions and reporting periods differ, cross-company totals would not be comparable.
CAD workforce and demand
Employment data helps connect software-market figures with the professionals who use CAD tools. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 180,200 drafters employed in 2025. The occupation requires computer software skills such as CAD across specialties. The BLS projects 181,400 U.S. drafter jobs in 2035, a 1% increase from 2025, and about 14,400 job openings per year on average from 2025 through 2035. Drafters: Occupational Outlook Handbook
Pay data from May 2025 shows a broad range. The median annual wage for U.S. drafters was $68,090. The lowest-paid 10% earned less than $46,700, while the highest-paid 10% earned more than $102,590. By specialty, median annual pay was $76,870 for electrical and electronics drafters, $71,550 for mechanical drafters, and $66,150 for architectural and civil drafters.
The projected direction differs by specialty. Architectural and civil drafter employment is projected to rise from 104,100 in 2025 to 109,500 in 2035, a 5% increase. Mechanical drafter employment is projected to fall from 42,100 to 39,600 over the same period, a 6% decrease. These are U.S. employment projections, not forecasts of software sales or global CAD adoption.
A separate BLS dataset counted 109,550 architectural and civil drafters in May 2024 and reported an annual mean wage of $68,860 for that occupation. In the same May 2024 data, architectural, engineering, and related services had the highest listed concentration of architecture and engineering occupations, at 44.0%. The different years and wage measures—May 2024 annual mean versus May 2025 median—should be kept distinct. Data tables for the overview of May 2024 occupational employment and wages