MicroStation user for over 30 Years. InRoads user since its first version. Actually trained on TDP (Transportation Design Package) on a Vax 11/785.
Project Manager/Engineer for 1st 100% CADD produced project for Md. State Highway Administration. Note: 15% was Traffic Signal/Signing/Lighting plans in AutoCAD, 85% was Highway/Storm Drain/Grading/Pavement Marking plans in MicroStation (IGDS) After that project, served as CADD Manager for the Highway Design Division until 1996. Worked at a training center for 7 months until that business folded and spent the next 10 years at GPI (Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. at their Jessup, Md office.
In January of 2009 was laid-off (after 2 1/2 years) from a position as a Senior CAD Systems Engineer for a large land development firm in Rockville, MD.
On Feb. 4, 2009, I was hired by AB Consultants, Inc. (www.abconsultantsinc.com) as their CADD Manager. Given the economic situation at that time, I was fortunate to have landed any job and this one was very good.
Recent experience includes extensive user interface management, InRoads XML Report customization, Roadway Designer and Template Editor development. Have created over 100 different Templates for multiple jurisdictions. XML report customization includes Legal Description, Survey, Volume Reports, Point/Line/Curve Tabling, Roadway Designer and XIN Management, Analysis & Reporting. I have also worked for over a year each on two light rail projects. One was in InRoads V8i Ss2 and the other in InRoads V8i Ss4.
I have worked extensively with configuration files and variables, including significant efforts in PCF files for both MicroStation and InRoads coordination.
I am becoming proficient with Civil 3D now and at managing Autodesk software. That task is not anywhere near as easy as Bentley makes it.
I was using an Avatar (with permission) from a cartoon by Mr. Roger Penwill - a talented and generous artist who apparently is also very familiar with CAD users and their managers. http://www.cadcartoons.com To see it in its full glory, follow this link:
cadcartoons.com/Index/standards/files/page1-1007-full
It seems that today, while you have to keep ones engineering skills sharp, that the skills for using the software in these endeavors requires as much or more efforts to keep current. And with the current situation (Covid-19) ones IT skills must be resurrected after years of having and on call, on site IT Department.
If you had been following any of my more recent posts, you may have noticed a strong slant towards InRoads Ss4/Open Roads. I was one of four persons from my firm that was on a long term, on-site assignment at a project which is being designed in InRoads Ss4/Open Roads. Sometimes, I feel like we've thrown out the baby with the bath water. I really miss the Roadway Designer. I had no trouble saying goodbye to the Roadway Modeler, but this is a big leap. And I see on the horizon, we will soon be saying goodbye to XIN files. These have been great tools that I am and will find difficult to get along without. Progress... For this old dog, some new tricks are tougher than others. C'est la vie!
Well, here's a quote that I do not even recall from where, but it goes like this:
"Wherever you go, there you are!"
So what's the point of this seemingly mindless quote? Well, my last days at AB have come and I have started one more leg of my career. Nine days short of the 40th anniversary of my first day of work at Maryland DOT, State Highway Administration, I became the CADD Manager for the Maryland DOT, State Highway Administration. More news to come as this story unfolds.
We are now in the early steps of the migration to Open Roads Designer. Having completed the migration of our InRoads based workspace to and ORD workspace with Chuck Lawson (Bentley), we have a handful of internal testers who have begun kicking the tires.
Thanks to COVID-19, I am currently working remotely from rural NE Ohio. We were able to execute our retirement move without actually retiring!