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ARCADIS CAD technician shares his love of Microsoft Office
Importer and Godzilla.
AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA — What better way to get the
inside scoop on Axiom utilities than to ask the people that
use them? This month, the MicroStation Today spotlight
shines on Jeff Freitas of Austin, Texas. If you travel on
State Highway 130 in central Texas or Price Freeway in Arizona,
this is the man to thank. Jeff Freitas, Lead CAD Technician
for the Austin division of the international engineering firm
ARCADIS, took some time from his day to speak with MicroStation
Today about his background in CAD, his fortune with Axiom
tools, his family and Godzilla.
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| Jeff Freitas, ARCADIS, Austin,
TX |
MicroStation Today: Please, tell us about
your background and career in the CAD industry?
Jeff: I've been a MicroStation CAD Technician for almost ten
years working mainly in transportation. I've been with ARCADIS
for one year in January. I am the Lead CAD Technician. Before
that I was working on the State Highway 130 project in Texas
for two years.
MST: What have been some highlights?
Jeff: I have worked on many projects between Arizona and Texas,
mainly large freeway road jobs. I'm very proud of the many
projects I've worked on and it's due to the teams I've worked
with, so I don't like to personally credit myself. Bruce Hagen
took me in at Aztec Engineering over nine years ago and taught
me to do CAD. Without him, I wouldn't be in this field today.
(He has since passed away.) From a work standpoint, the two
projects that most profoundly affected my career were the
Price Freeway job working at BRW in Arizona and the State
Highway 130 job at Lonestar Infrastructure as an employee
of DMJM Harris in Texas. However, I have learned more at Austin
ARCADIS Office in basic design and engineering than anywhere.
MST: Tell us about your usual day?
Jeff: I get up at 5:30 a.m. to get ready for work. I arrive
to work at 6:30 a.m., eat my breakfast (usually instant oatmeal)
and get started on my tasks for the day. Depending on the
workload at the time, I may be doing just CAD work or may
do some simple GEOPAK [civil design software by Bentley] functions
or work with Descartes. With Descartes [Descartes offers services
and software solutions for industries such as transportation
with inventory, logistics assets and mobile workforce], I'm
cutting photos for figures or drainage area maps. I work four
nine-hour days (plus an hour lunch) and a four-hour day on
Friday
MST: Which Axiom products do you use?
Jeff: I use Microsoft Office Importer. Microsoft Office
Importer has saved us numerous hours in creating summary
sheets (a "summary sheet" is an inventory table
of the construction items to be used in a design). We create
a template in Excel. Once we get it filled out to our liking,
we use Microsoft Office Importer to import the Excel
file into MicroStation. Once it's in the MicroStation sheet
file, we make any necessary adjustments such as row and column
sizes. [Editor's Note: a sheet file is a design file (or model)
which will be plotted. For example, a sheet file could contain
a border, a title block and selected views for a particular
design.]
MST: What was it like before you used Microsoft
Office Importer? How has your productivity changed since
that time?
Jeff: Based on my experience with Microsoft Office Importer,
Axiom tools increase productivity and consistency. Before
Microsoft Office Importer, I had to manually create
summary sheets and all types of quantity summaries. Summary
sheets were created in MicroStation with text and lines but
any type of change to the summary sheet was difficult because
it was all done manually. Now with the Microsoft Excel and
Microsoft Office Importer combination, I can adjust
rows and columns to give me more room on a sheet to add more
information. A complicated summary sheet could take anywhere
upwards of an hour and 15 minutes. Now with Microsoft Office
Importer, when we have the base sheet set up in Excel,
it takes 35 minutes and that includes revisions.
MST: Tell us a bit about your self?
Jeff: I enjoy watching football, baseball, basketball and
hockey. I am a fan of the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Boston
Bruins. The last time I played any sports was in high school;
I played soccer for two years. During the summer, I watch
Godzilla or anime [Editor's Note: anime is a style of animation
developed in Japan, characterized by stylized colorful art,
futuristic settings and action], or play video games on my
Xbox. Of course, I spend time with my wife and play with my
kids.
MST: So do you like anything Godzilla - or do you
prefer the TV series or any movies in particular?
Jeff: I collect the Godzilla movies, but don't like the American
version that was released in the theatres. Other than that,
I like them all. I was collecting the comics, but can't find
them anymore.
MST: Thank you, Jeff.
Jeff: Thank you.
About ARCADIS
ARCADIS has 9,000 employees, which generate $900 million in
annual gross revenue. ARCADIS is an international company
that provides consulting, engineering and project management
services for infrastructure, environment and facilities.
Call now!
For more information on Microsoft
Office Importer contact an Axiom MicroStation Consultant
today! Call 727-442-7774 extension 9421 or e-mail 9421@axiomint.com.
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