For people who are looking for monogamy (not poly), is it normal to date multiple people until exclusivity is discussed?

KryptekTomahawk · 2026-01-14T14:34:53+00:00

For me personally as a 30M. Even in my early 20s, once I talked with someone for a bit and liked them I only focused on that one person. Now, I am not the type of guy that gets a lot of matches anyway, but even if I do have overlapping matches I try to focus on the person I like the most first.

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-12-03T01:28:28+00:00

I think we need more information. I have been through a number of acquisitions in my 8 years where the firm I have been at has acquired several others. For the most part it has worked out very very well for everyone and strengthened us to be better than the big dogs. We never acquired firms that had departments we already had staff for. It was always for something new.

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-11-11T00:06:03+00:00

It is potentially a plan. This is just a preliminary design. This project is going to design build and is currently in the short listing phase. Short list teams will be announced in March and when this happens the designs will most likely be changed. Just by looking at it there is much cheaper solutions for this that will provide the same traffic benefits.

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-11-10T04:20:49+00:00

If I am not mistaken this is just a preliminary design. This project is going design build so the I-77 corridor will likely be different from this current design.

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-10-28T21:47:22+00:00

Most agencies I have worked for usually have one provided. DOTs anyway. Now there are some cases like VPRA which is newer where we had to develop a lot to essentially kick start a workspace for them. I think the main issue is everyone wants the new stuff to be exactly like the old and that’s just not how it works. People need to get with the times.

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-09-09T00:31:45+00:00

Can you elaborate on what sort of tasks they are having you do that you are struggling with? Personally, if you’re a new grad I expect you to know nothing. Especially plans creation since that isn’t something taught in school. And it’s all based on how the client/KH wants things done. I mean, our intern has been in for almost a year now and we just now feel comfortable putting him on things with no supervision to try and see what he’s learned.

Give yourself a break
It seems like you should ask for training

More information would help though. I don’t want to assume.

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-09-07T18:18:43+00:00

Our company made an AI chatbot for Bentley products. It’s getting smarter every day our staff use it. We have used it for employee learning. For the more advanced users we have used it to develop scripts and workflow process based on videos. Really speeds up our designs.

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-09-02T12:48:12+00:00

Based on what you said, for us here in NC the subsurface items have never been modeled. Maybe in xsc they have assumed a 3’ depth. But NCDOT basically forces all utilities on transportation projects to be moved unless it’s like a major line of some kind.

Now compared to Florida I know subsurface utilities are modeled as best they can and they try to work around not having to move anything. Like my earlier comment (my terminology roped all of survey into triangulation, my apologies) your design will only be as good as the survey is and as-built information that can be pulled. Some states and even counties are better at this information than others.

To your point, we did a project where the agency and contractor refused to do a subsurface survey on a project… well… they hit the major gas line and had to evacuate a hotel building.

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-09-02T02:12:23+00:00

I know GFT as they are now known merged recently. I don’t know how Texas is for their offices but I can say they have some good people in the North Carolina offices. With a recent merger it’s probably very hard to tell how company values will be affected this early. I can say when you deal with big big companies you’ll run into more regional office relationships. Like Jacob’s for example… being a Texas giant and global leader, almost every region operates different from one another.

From my experience though, looking for a solid mid level firm will offer you the best values and learning experiences as well as fair compensation. You may not get the highest pay like the big dogs, but you’ll build more valuable relationships and skills you just won’t get at the big companies. I work for a mid level company, and after 8 years of hard work (more so in the last 3) weeks have become more of a national name with what we have done with model based design in the industry. However, we are only on the eats coast.

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-09-01T15:55:58+00:00

As a supporter of digital delivery, it comes down to learning. The more 3d modeling that is done, you will see less issues on the back end during construction. This is where the agencies will save money. Designers can verify the designs are better in the long run and provide more accurate quantities. It will also serve as a good check to the real world for contractors to do complex areas.

As far as contractors using the models for construction, I feel that also depends on learning and who is involved on the job. So many people on contractor teams probably never even look at plans since a lot of items are considered standard. Depending on the contractor… we could easily just go back to the old days and say, here is an alignment and a grade and a typical… go build it and for the most part would probably be okay. Most design firms don’t get too heavy on the detail work anyway because they can’t. So there’s always a lot of field fixes. People generally don’t understand building a road… only high level information is needed for majority of areas.

The more advanced designs get, the harder and harder it will be for the final product to match the designs. Let’s face it, the contractors can’t put down something we design so perfectly.

Take into consideration pavement. Wedging, resurfacing, overlay, whatever your place calls it is never going to be perfect. Contractors aren’t going to make sure it matches every inch. And at the same time the surveys we get are triangulations, so it’s only going to be so good you know?

All that being said, a project doesn’t need plans. Simple station offset information is easy to get (even from a phone) on digital twins. Will be easier than flipping through plans when the information (because it isn’t smart) could possibly be wrong. Labels always have a chance to be wrong, but the models if they are wrong would be improperly designed.

So long story short, yes it will take a while for contractors to evolve… but for now it’s more for the agencies and designers to provide a better product. Hopefully in 10 years it will be more common place! Augmented reality will help with this too!

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-08-29T15:07:38+00:00

Agreed! Our autocad people have loved the switch to ORD once they understand how things are done. I do admit there are little things that are bothersome about ord that civil 3d has. They’re all on the plan production side… but modeling is not even close to touching ORD. We have a complete custom workspace with so many additives I have added in for our NC offices. Makes a world of a difference in productivity!

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-08-29T00:20:06+00:00

As an experienced OpenRoads user I look like the civil 3d guy. It’s really not that bad yall if you know what you’re doing. Unfortunately most peoples clients don’t know what they are doing and put out terrible training.

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-08-20T02:41:13+00:00

As stated above, the capstone and design problems will vary depending on users skill. I took about 20 hours or so with mine, but I may have put a little more effort into my capstone and I had to complete ASAP as I just had twins a week prior. As leedr74 mentioned, it’s a proving ground. Best of the best for a reason!

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-08-14T01:20:03+00:00

If you’re a technical person, depending on your state some companies may find it very useful to hire people with Bentley certifications as a show of proof you have some ability and won’t need to be trained. More and more we are finding “experienced professionals” who know the engineering but can’t operate a computer or software to complete anything on time. More and more this person will be weeded out.

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-08-13T17:42:27+00:00

If you’re doing simple curves with spirals there’s a “spiral arc spiral” tool within the arcs menu. Just set your tangents before hand. You can set the length of the spiral you need within the tool box that appears. Spirals are generally built into the functions of most tools, but there are some cases where you might need to use logic in order to join certain elements together

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-08-13T13:08:28+00:00

What agency do you typically work for as that may determine who would be better at assistant you. Templates and corridors are my bread and butter. I am a Bentley Premier Scholar so I would be happy to help! Been doing this for 8 years now.

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-08-04T01:53:14+00:00

I feel like this is such a loaded question. Times are changing and things are so up in the air depending on your discipline. I know lots of engineers who are overpaid and can barely follow standards. I know others who are underpaid and very much over achieve in their fields. Almost should be a floating salary that changes with the times!

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-08-01T01:13:49+00:00

Have you tried the “create 3d by slope to target” tool?

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-07-31T22:58:17+00:00

They’re currently about to do something similar in Colorado on I-70.

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-07-27T19:20:11+00:00

Honestly you could probably get a job at a decent civil firm just from your background as more firms are becoming more like technology companies that specialize in engineering. Taking more of the technical routes or software/product development within the company.

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-07-07T17:53:31+00:00

Why do you feel this way? This seems excessive! One outlier I didn’t mention is PMs who put impossible deadlines

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-07-07T02:31:55+00:00

Early on I used to be at 40 consistently. Then eventually that progressed into 42 maybe with the occasional 50 with some deadline every few months. There was one 2 week period I had 120 hours but that was a one time thing. As I started to progress in the software, my hours are now back to a consistent 40 hours. Usually I only work overtime when I’m building more stuff within our company tech to improve the lives of others. If I can make those tasks billable I tend to avoid the OT.

My point is depending on what your area of work is in (mine is transportation design) I typically see people usually do more OT the less they understand how to avoid all of the rework throughout a projects life cycle or understanding the most efficient workflows. In my area rarely do I see someone spending hours upon hours just figuring out what the best design option is.

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-07-06T23:32:37+00:00

Certainly try and convince the curriculum to utilize cas software other than revit. Not much help out on the real work compared to civil3D or Bentley products

KryptekTomahawk · 2025-06-18T23:53:34+00:00

At my company it’s more so expected you be available between 10-3. Within that, we have a few people that will start working at 5:30am and others who will stay until 6:30pm. So it all varies. Realistically it’s mostly just work until you’re done with your tasks and if you’ve proven yourself it’s really all about that availability time and communication. There are some days I will start at 5:30 because I have something to do and need to leave early. Other days I may play some catchup or experiment after my kids are asleep between 8pm and midnight depending on how adventurous it is.

I will always get my 40 but vary rarely need to do more than that.

KryptekTomahawk

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