M. Thomas started his career as a draftsman, and is an expert in AutoCAD. He has worked closely with designs that are electro-mechanical in nature. Producing detailed working drawings, bill of materials, EO’s and CN’s. Mr. Thomas can produce drawing documentation for a wide range of related fields, including architectural.

G. Downey has over 20 years of experience in both the commercial and custom residential industries. He has extensive experience in Architectural Design, Project Management and considerable hands-on construction experience. He has been involved in a wide range of projects, from installing curtain wall on 50 story high-rise buildings in Manhattan to glass shower enclosures in exclusive residences around the tri-state area. Through ongoing interaction with clients, contractors, subcontractors, and town building officials, he has overseen all aspects of project schedules to meet requested deadlines. Through the use of AutoCAD, he has created and managed numerous sets of construction documents for both exclusive residences and mid-rise buildings in New Jersey. His broad-based knowledge and understanding of construction includes practical involvement with numerous trades including: Ornamental Ironworking, Wood and Steel stud Framing, Electrical, Plumbing, Finish Carpentry, Painting, Marble/Granite and Ceramic finishes. This diversity allows him to appreciate how all facets of the construction process integrate and to better visualize the final finished product.

M. Keolyan is an independent CAD drafter and designer. His extensive expertise in putting together design, shop and permit drawing sets for dawnings, trellises and canopies. Also, has extensive expertise in CD sets for residential homes. Anything from new construction to home additions. He received a BA in Architecture from Woodbury University.

S. Mahalle is an expert in developing designs using Autocad 2011 and Revit (for BIM) 2011 and previous versions. Mrs. Mahalle has worked directly with architects on design projects, including residential homes, commercial buildings and interior designing. She holds a five year Bachelors degree in Architecture.

J. Potenza serves as a CADD consultant for construction projects in Massachusetts. He began as a civil drafter for the City of Boston in 1978 while attending Boston Architectural Center, and learned the Auto-trol system in 1982. He became a CADD Manager in 1985. It was at this time that he became proficient in AutoCAD, Intergraph and GDS and began creating CADD Drafting standards. Mr. Potenza headed up the CADD design for a Wastewater Treatment Plant on GDS.

Building on his GDS experience, he created and implement the CADD standards for the Boston Central Artery Project. In 2010, Mr. Potenza began teaching CADD/Engineering. Because of his extensive design/build experience, he was recently asked to design and manage the construction of a new 104,000 sq. ft. educational campus in Woburn, MA.

Interview with Mr. J. Potenza

1. What kinds of clients do you serve? What is your particular area of expertise?

   I have worked primarily with A/E firms for over 30 years. Architectural design, Civil and Utility relocation.

2. What was the most interesting CAD project that you ever worked on? What made it interesting? What challenges did you face?

   The Central Artery/3rd Harbor Tunnel. The massive coordination of companies and disciplines. The constant changes and revisions.

3. Of the software tools that you use, which is your favorite and why?

   My favorite was Auto-trol but I dont think it exists any more. Autocad now. I was in cad before Autocad existed.

4. What trends are you observing in the market for CAD services? How have these trends affected you, and how are you responding to them?

   I think companies would rather hire a service now. It hasnt really affected me.

5. What do you like about working as an interim CAD draftsman or external CAD consultant working on a time-bound project?

   I like the constant project change and the challenge of completing a job on time.

6. Have you ever provided CAD consulting services remotely, either via phone, the Web or email?
   Do you use any screen sharing tools (like Webex, Skype, or GoToMeeting), and are they effective?
   What kinds of questions and problems could you tackle remotely?
   Are there any issues that you feel are better handled face-to-face?

   Yes, on many joint ventures. I have used GoToMeeting and found it somewhat effective. Preliminary design and most changes can be handled remotely. Face-to-face meetings are best for initial project start up and major changes.

O. Medina is an independent consultant with experience in Computer Aid Drafting software, mainly Chief Architect and AutoCad. For the past seven years he has been developing residential Architectural Drawings, HVAC and electrical drawings for residential and commercial projects. As an Architectural residential drafter he had been involved in the complete design process of projects, including schemes proposals through final construction documents. He has generated drawings for floor plans, elevations, sections, structural, electrical, plumbing, site plans and detailed sections. Also he had developed 3D walkthrough video clips for some of the projects. Oscar is currently studying electrical engineering on-line at Stony Brook University in New York. He is a graduated engineer in electronics from Saint Thomas University in Bogota Colombia.

S. Gonzalez is currently and independent Architect and CAD consultant, a role he has performed since 1998. Mr. Gonzalez has overseen all design activities for 2D & 3D drafting, focusing on AutoCad, VectorWorks, ArtLantis, Photoshop & Corel Draw. Mr. Gonzalez started his career as a CAD Draftsman. He received a BA in Architecture from UMG -Universidad Mariano Galvez- in Guatemala City and studied Architectural Design at Sci-Arc LA and Urbanism at Universidad de Puebla Mexico.

R. Ruben is currently an independent CAD Designer. He previously held a position as a Senior CAD Designer in central California managing CAD design for a Civil Engineering team from 2009 to 2011. Mr. Ruben designed all aspects of design plans for water systems, instrumentation and energy systems as well as, Street improvements for land development of commercial and residential land use. Responsibilities included the design and research of fresh water reservoirs and pump stations, water utility design, Including surface profiles, surface modeling and alignment design, code compliance, architectural and structural plan design, jurisdiction requirements, and, project and team coordination. Special skills include CAD management with AutoCad.

J. Yazel provides both 2D plans for houses and a business, as well as 3D designing. He has an associate’s degree in architecture.

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D. Hilton has over twenty-five years graphic design experience on Macintosh and PC platforms using primarily InDesign, Quark Xpress, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat and Microsoft Office. As an architectural and structural draftsperson, she is also adept at preparing plans, details and as-builts from client sketches and specifications using AutoCAD 2011. Ms. Hilton can prepare (2d) cost-effective photographic mock-ups of architectural structures. She is experienced in creating creative websites using CSS, HTML and Dreamweaver.

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Comments

1. Describe a project that was particularly challenging. What was challenging about it? What was the solution and what results did you achieve?

   I draw floor plans of existing homes for my husband who makes scaled birdhouses. The challenging part is that I often don’t have any dimensions to work from, so I have to interpolate the footprint and door and window sizes from photographs. I generally use standard sizes to get the best approximation.

2. Which CAD software programs do you find the most useful for the kind of work that you do?

   AutoCAD 2011

3. What are the pros and cons of the various CAD software programs that you use?

   I only use AutoCAD. I use other programs for other purposes, like Adobe products for graphic design.

4. How do you keep yourself up-to-date with the various developments in your field of work?

   I read on-line articles and talk to colleagues. Also, help forums for help.

5. Which new skills have you acquired in the past year? What new skills do you plan to acquire in the future?

   Just keeping up with the new features in the software is a full-time job 🙂

6. Are there any kinds of activities that you feel are better to outsource or subcontract than to do yourself?

   N/A

7. Send us some samples of your work, in any format (DWG, PDF, JPEG, DXF,etc.), along with a description of each sample.

   Attached is a set of drawings for a structural engineer. Also, see my website of examples:

   http://www.ilikeitdesign.com/drafting/autocad.html

8. Testimonials you would like to send us from your existing customers.

   I have never asked for any.

A. Fokam is a qualified architect and has been involved in the design and documentation of a wide array of projects including residential, commercial and medical facilities. He is an expert in Building Information Modeling (BIM) and green design, energy efficiency and indoor air quality. He is experienced in the preparation of drawings for new homes, additions and renovations.

L .DeBoard has a strong background in both architecture and product design, and is an expert in AutoCad, Photoshop and Illustrator. Has a working knowledge of 3D applications like Catia, Alias and 3D Studio. He has worked for a leading architectural firm as well as a tier one automotive supplier.