More

CAD Background

Manual drafting to computer-aided design, 1979 to 2012

Drafting and design work beginning with ink on vellum in 1979 and continuing through CADAM, Intergraph, MicroStation, and AutoCAD, with approximately 45,000 hours of CAD design across all areas of practice.

1979 – 1984

Manual drafting and first exposure to CAD

Drafting began in 1979 through a high-school drafting curriculum, working on the board in ink on vellum. A subsequent internship as a drafting clerk at IBM in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, was primarily manual drafting in ink on vellum, and provided a first introduction to computer-aided design using CADAM, the Lockheed-developed CAD system then in use at IBM. Following completion of the Mechanical Engineering Technology degree at Texas State Technical College in Waco, a move to Austin, Texas, included a diploma program in AutoCAD at Durham’s Business College in 1984.

1985 – 1989

Utility drafting and CAD standards implementation

From 1985 to 1989, work in the City of Austin Electric Utility Department, later Austin Energy, began in manual drafting and progressed into substation design. As the only employee with CAD knowledge at the time, Mr. Parnell assisted in implementing the department’s CAD design standards. The department used the Intergraph CAD system, the predecessor of Bentley MicroStation, and substation design work was carried out on Intergraph/MicroStation through 1989.

1989 – 2007

Independent CAD design practice

After a series of contract positions in the Raleigh–Durham area of North Carolina, Mr. Parnell established a CAD design bureau, RDU CAD Design, and later Cadistics, providing freelance CAD design services to clients in the Raleigh-Durham area. The bureau operated from 1989 until approximately 2007. Over that period he accumulated roughly 45,000 hours of CAD design on both Autodesk and Bentley platforms, supporting electrical utilities, telecommunications, textile manufacturing, HVAC systems, pharmaceutical processes, industrial equipment, educational facilities, and as-built record development.

Statewide Mapping

Roadway inventory GIS basemaps

One of the largest projects of the bureau period was the implementation of the North Carolina Department of Transportation roadway inventory system. Working as a state-approved vendor under an open-ended contract, Mr. Parnell used various Bentley platforms and add-ons to create 36 of the state’s 100 county GIS basemaps. The work required extensive research into mapping sources for digitization. All attribute data and GIS elements in those basemaps were created manually and specifically by him.

2010 – 2012

Final CAD contracts and transition

CAD design continued on several contracts from 2010 through 2012. At the close of that period Mr. Parnell no longer operated CAD systems directly and moved into engineering management work, and from there into continuing-education development for licensed engineers.

Platforms and Deliverables

Systems used and document types produced

  • Manual drafting, ink on vellum
  • CADAM (Lockheed)
  • Intergraph, later Bentley MicroStation, with Bentley GIS add-ons
  • AutoCAD and Autodesk platforms
  • Substation physical design drawings
  • One-line and three-line diagrams, schematics, relay wiring
  • Plant layouts, equipment details, process piping
  • Bridge details and roadway plans
  • County GIS basemaps and roadway-inventory mapping
  • As-built record drawings
  • And much more!!

About this record. This site is a working record of professional experience, maintained to verify subject-matter background. Areas of practice are reached from the menu above. The record is expanded as additional work history is documented.

Donald W. Parnell, PE  |  North Carolina PE No. 33878