1989: Graduate of Civil Engineering Technology program.
1989 - 1995: ADI Limited. Began designing roads using EMXS. EMXS was a stand alone DOS application with DXF export for graphics. Those were the days. Started using MicroStation and InRoads when Ustn 4.0 was released, mostly during the twinning of the Trans Canada Highway through New Brunswick, Canada. Early on, I also got into the guts of MicroStation and helped the CAD group write UCMs, create custom linestyles, troubleshooting plotting, training other users, and so on to support the civil group and other areas of the company. I worked in 3D MicroStation from the beginning, producing renderings and flythoughs of road projects.
1995-1999: ADI Limited. Moved from the roads group to Technical Services, supporting company operations through progamming, user support, and training, while trying to keep the bean counters happy by continuing to work on projects to keep my billable hours in the happy zone. Continued to champion the use of 3D within the company, but only the roads group would do it. Others liked 3D for the renderings and presentation stuff, but would not embrace it for project work. I reached the end of my rope in 1999 and left.
1999-2000: Worked on a 200km road construction project in New Brunswick. I lead a team of techs responsible for processing monthly earthworks quantities for progress payments to contractors. All the design had been done in LDD, so we used LDD for the construction quantities. It was very cumbersome compared to what I was used to. Fortunately I wound up in more of a management role, dealing with contract issues and directly with the contractors.
2000-2001: Started my own company, Minds Eye Technical Services. I produced as-builts for the previous project and started developing MicroStation based software for sale, although I think I gave more away than I actually sold.
2002-present: Advanced CAD Services. An associate (Gary Manuel) from ADI Limited had left shortly after I did and started his own company. We were two specialized MicroStation gurus competing for work in the same geography. We decided that was foolish and combined our companies into one. No regrets. We do lots of cool stuf. We are a small company with some very big clients. Life is good.