We Make Civil Engineering Look Good | Working to Make Transportation and other Civil Engineer Projects Better through Outreach, 3D Visualization and More!

It's been 1 year since Beyond CAD was launched in early access. Since then a lot of great things have happened (including Beyond Typicals!). The next year will be even greater.

Today’s special guest is Dr. Cody Pennetti, a professional engineer, university-level instructor, and researcher. Cody and Sam have similar stories about how they got into the visualization industry, with both of them being somewhat influenced by their brothers’ work in the animation and gaming industries, respectively.

Cody received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and had an opportunity for an internship doing site civil design work, which included a variety of projects, from retail and residential buildings to pipeline and infrastructure work. After going down that track for a while, he earned his Master's degree in Systems Engineering, focusing on infrastructure design and management. After spending 18 months working on a textbook widely used by universities across the country, called The Land Development Handbook, he got inspired and returned to school to pursue his PhD and do research work.

He got involved in the visualization industry by using a basic workflow that included AutoCAD and Sketchup, but later transitioned to 3DS Max due to better and more realistic results. However, as Cody says, even though we can get much better results now than we did in the past, the civil engineering industry still has a lot of work to do when it comes to visualization.

Sam and Cody talk about what they hope for the future of 3D Visualization, which involves having one software program that will allow us to create the model of a project for all disciplines of the field, as well as why Dr. Penneti does not let go of being a practicing engineer and focus entirely on his university lectures.

Resources Mentioned

Cody Pennetti - LinkedIn / [email protected]

The Land Development Handbook - McGraw Hill

University of Virginia - UVA

Beyond CAD - Website / Vision Weekly Update / Video Updates

Sam Lytle - LinkedIn / [email protected]

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In this episode I talk to Kristian Jenkins of Shift Media about his work with Construction Phasing Animations and how he's able to take them to the next level with a structured workflow.

In this episode Stephen Walz, Digital Design Lead of HDR, brings decades of experience to a discussion on BIM, Digital Twins and the future of 3D Visualization.

Photo rendering, 3D models, and interactive visualization are some of the many ways we can make civil engineering look good, from an architectural design to a brand new infrastructure project. However, today’s guest goes beyond the common uses of these tools and applies illustrations and graphics to the Mining Industry.

Olga Krelin is a graphic, industrial, and information designer at Mining Illustrated, a Vancouver-based company that strongly believes in strategic visual content as a crucial part of every enterprise in the mining industry, both the ones focused on steel and gold, as well as those focused on more battery-related metals, such as nickel and lithium.

As a graphic designer by education, Olga started out with her design studio, Olga Krelin Design Associates, doing general branding and design services. However, one day she was requested to do a branding project for a mining company. What looked like to be something truly common, given that the project involved the usual design services, she, instead, kept receiving more and more projects requested by mining companies. When she least expected, the mining sector represented 90% of all the services of her design studio. Facing this significant information, she decided to niche down and focus on the mining industry, eventually coming up with Mining Illustrated.

This interview dives deeper into the details of how she got into the mining industry as a graphic designer, what her workflow looks like, from softwares to the different files she receives from clients, how she was able to reach and convert international clients from all parts of the globe, and what she thinks about the future of the mining industry, given the popularity of battery-related metals.

Resources Mentioned

Olga Krelin - LinkedIn / Twitter (@illustrate_ore) / Instagram (@olga.krelin) /

Mining Illustrated - Website / Contact

Olga Krelin Design Associates - Website

Sam Lytle - LinkedIn / [email protected]