(Smile Section & Newsletter)

(05/23/25)

On Memorial Day, we honor the courage and sacrifice of those who served. As engineers, we’re inspired by their courage to build a better, safer, and stronger future for our communities.

(04/08/25)

𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐥 & 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞.

As we mark our 15th month in operation, we're proud to be collaborating with now over 10 diverse civil and surveying firms across the Southeast, with up to 15+ projects per client.

We have tailored our services to meet the unique challenges that each client faces which has given us invaluable experience across a growing variety of projects.

The standout feedback from our partners? Our ability to adapt quickly and effectively to each company’s unique procedures and design standards. This agility has been instrumental in fostering strong, effective and long-term collaborations.

We want to also express our gratitude to our incredible partners for their ongoing trust and support.

What are some of the most significant challenges you face in this industry? Let's work together to address them!

(01/08/25)

🌟 Celebrating Our First Year in Business! 🌟

As we wrap up CADMYN’s first year, we’re excited to share our journey and accomplishments! Partnering with many new civil and surveying firms, we’ve tackled a wide variety of exciting projects and engineering tasks.

Key Accomplishments in 2024:

50+ Concept and Site Plans: Created innovative site plans tailored to each project's unique needs, enhancing functionality and ensuring compliance with local regulations.
100+ Grading Plans: Developed detailed grading plans for numerous residential, municipal, and commercial projects, while focusing on cost optimization.
Numerous Erosion Control Plans: Implemented effective strategies to protect the environment and promote sustainable development practices.
Comprehensive Stormwater Reports: Developed detailed reports that addressed regulatory requirements and advanced water management solutions. Collaborated closely with SCM manufacturers to ensure optimal design and compliance.
Full Civil Engineering Site Development Plans: Successfully designed several residential and commercial projects from start to approval.
Utility Line Design: Developed plan/profile sheets for utility or stormwater pipes.
Stormwater Management Guidance: Provided advice for stormwater management or drainage solutions across various municipalities.
Survey Projects Drafting: Completed numerous surveys with Civil 3D® for short-staffed survey firms.
New CAD Standards Creation: Established innovative CAD standards for civil firms that enhance efficiency.
Engineering Consulting Services: Addressed markups from other professional engineers using Civil 3D® while providing thorough design reviews. Also, reviewed plan sets from other civil firms prior to submittal and provided detailed comments to avoid issues or delays during approval process or construction.
Dedicated 200+ hours to specialized coursework: From leadership to business, CAD, Accounting, Taxes, Marketing, Cybersecurity, IT...
Four new business certifications: HUB, NCDOT, NCSBE, and SPSF
Connected with 400+ engineers, surveyors, and other professionals: It has been truly inspiring to learn about the unique stories, goals, and projects each of you is pursuing. This is what we love about engineering — the endless possibilities and the exciting projects or goals we all work towards!
And much more!

These achievements showcase not only our technical expertise in drafting and engineering, but mainly our dedication to assisting other firms in the industry to accelerate their project approvals with the support of an on-call Professional Engineer.

As we look ahead, we’re excited to build on this momentum in the coming year! Let’s connect and explore new opportunities together!

What's wrong with the image above?

(01/05/25)

🌞Tips for civil designers🌞

When designing preliminary 2D concept plans, pay attention to the items below:

Look up existing topography of the site and place wet ponds/SCMs downstream of the site:
- See town/county GIS, USGS Topo Maps or similar and pay attention to the contours and their elevations.
- (Water usually flows downhill.😉) (Avoid expensive pumped systems if at all possible.)
Look up FEMA floodplain maps
- Avoid placing buildings or other sensitive structures within the floodplain. (Additional permits will apply if the project impacts floodplain areas.)
Look up the National Wetlands Inventory
Look up the GIS maps for the site and old plats (if available) and aerial maps. On top of the zoning information (see UDO), you might learn other crucial information that could impact site design.
There are, of course, plenty of other things to pay attention to, however, that's typically step 1.

(01/01/25)

🎉 Cheers to a fantastic 2025!🎉

Happy New Year everyone! Wishing all of you a year of growth, innovation, amazing health, joy, and success!

What are your goals for 2025?

We’re eager to continue building new and established partnerships, support even more exciting projects, and achieve even more great things together in 2025!

(12/20/24)

🎄 Merry Christmas from CADMYN! 🎄

As we celebrate this joyful season, we want to extend our warmest wishes to you. This year has been filled with meaningful connections and collaborations, and we are truly thankful for the opportunity to work and network with all of you.

May this Christmas bring you peace, joy, and cherished moments with your loved ones. We look forward to continuing our journey together in the coming year!

(11/25/24)

Happy Thanksgiving Holidays! 🦃

Wishing you a day filled with laughter, love, and just the right amount of awkward family moments!

We are truly grateful this Thanksgiving for the amazing partnerships we've had throughout the year with such wonderful people and with exciting projects!

Just for fun:

What did Han Solo say to Luke Skywalker on Thanksgiving? "May the forks be with you!"
Why did this turkey join the band? Because it had the drumsticks!
What’s a mathematician’s favorite dessert at Thanksgiving? Pi(e) of course! (Unknown Authors)

(11/15/24)

Exciting Times!

We can't wait to witness how technology will evolve in the design of new sites with AI and virtual reality in the next few years.

(11/15/24)

Back in time - Why Civil Engineering?

"My passion for civil engineering started from a dream when I was a young teenager. Yes, an actual dream of a fancy hotel which led me to build a large 3D wooden model of this 5-star hotel I had created in my sleep, in partnership with an architect.

This architect mentioned that if I was to pursue this project further, I'd need to also collaborate with civil & structural engineers to ensure the hotel would be efficient and safe.

"What? That's not the job of the architect?! Tell me more!" I said.

That was the first time I learned about civil engineering. After some additional research, I completely fell in love with that industry.

What better profession can you have that will explain how the world around you functions?

In addition to my interest in civil engineering, I have always been passionate about drawing, science, and assisting others achieve their own goals.

The creation of CADMYN enables me to integrate all these into a singular mission and I couldn't be happier."

- Lauren Micallef, P.E. - Founder & CEO

If you also have a neat story about how you picked your career path, we'd love to hear it! If together we can inspire other boys and girls to get into these exciting STEM fields, that would be another dream come true. 🤩

Similarly, if you have a kid that has has questions about construction or engineering, just reach out. We'd be delighted to answer them for him/her.

(Photos in slide show attached. Pretty cool for a kid's project, no?
You can't imagine how many pages of Pythagorean theorem formulas went into the design of the roof . 😅)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN / DIWALI 2024!

Just for fun:
- What do you get when you divide a pumpkin's circumference by its diameter? Pumpkin-pi!

(Unknown Author)

(10/31/24)

Shaping Tomorrow’s Cities Together!

Ever notice how cities and towns are like living puzzles, constantly evolving with new buildings, roads, and neighborhoods? Well, behind this exciting growth are the civil engineering and surveying superheroes, ensuring everything runs smoothly and safely!

However, at CADMYN, we’re not just another engineering firm. We’re the behind-the-scenes on-call sidekicks ready to jump into action when these amazing engineer/surveyor superheroes need us most. With ~ 20 years of experience in Civil 3D and over 10 years in civil/site engineering, we bring the expertise to tackle any challenge that comes our way.

What’s Our Superpower?

We seamlessly integrate with existing teams, providing everything from site plans and grading to erosion control and stormwater management to only name a few. We’re not competitors; we’re force multipliers! Think of us as your secret weapon - helping civil and surveying firms expand their horizons and take on bigger projects even with limited in-house resources.

If you're a land development project manager, picture the possibilities with an extra team of sub-consulting civil and drafting experts at your disposal, ready to help you tackle any land development challenge while preserving your firm's identity and quality. That’s the CADMYN advantage — empowering civil and surveying firms to reach new heights.

Are you ready to supercharge your next project? Let’s chat! Reach out to us at info@CADMYN.com today to learn more!

And as we wrap up the Halloween season, let’s keep the spirit of collaboration alive—because together, we can create something truly magical!

(09/10/24)

Why did we start CADMYN?

After over a decade in the civil engineering industry, we’ve observed a persistent issue: the overwhelming number of projects compared to the availability of drafters and Professional Engineers (PEs) to manage them.

Many firm owners have highlighted the need for a consultant who can assist their staff with technical issues (such as stormwater management, grading, etc.) or provide fresh perspectives to enhance their firm’s efficiency with CAD and other challenges. They all, without exception, expressed that having a qualified PE available on a contract basis— whether to help them tackle an unusually large project, cover parental leave, sick time, or the interim period required to hire a full-time CAD technician or PE — would be immensely beneficial.

For civil firms, the hiring process for qualified full-time candidates is both time-consuming and resource-intensive, involving extensive vetting, training, and onboarding. This can significantly strain already limited resources, leading to project delays and increased stress on existing team members.

In an attempt to cut costs or save time, many firms have turned to hiring unqualified drafters. However, hiring drafters without the proper experience often results in complete project re-dos, proving to be counterproductive. It’s clear that this approach is not the solution they or their clients were hoping for, and the search for a reliable, efficient alternative continues... until now.

In response to these challenges, we have created a new and reliable solution designed to alleviate these pressures and ensure that projects remain on track, even when staffing is tight.

(07/08/24)

Today marks a significant milestone for us at CADMYN, PLLC – it’s been 6 months since our launch! 🚀

Over the past half-year, we’ve assisted our civil engineering clients in gaining fresh perspectives on their project challenges, leading to successful city approvals on their subsequent submissions.

We’ve worked on a wide range of projects, from residential subdivisions to sports complexes and various commercial developments.

We managed a few projects for another civil firm for a couple of weeks while they had several PE/CAD techs out at the same time, allowing them to keep their projects on schedule and their clients happy.

We’ve connected property owners seeking to develop their parcels with other enthusiastic engineering firms for project management, while CADMYN handles some of the drafting services or other CAD/engineering technical challenges. This tailored support helps these civil firms provide the best project outcomes based on their current staff needs.

We’ve had the privilege of collaborating with incredible people and delivering top-notch drafting and civil engineering services. Our journey has been fueled by a commitment to flexibility, quality, and a passion for excellence.

A huge thank you to our valued clients for your trust and support. We couldn’t have achieved this without you! 🙌

Here’s to many more months of innovation, growth, and success. Let’s continue building the future together!

(04/21/24)

Integrating a project onto a parcel is easy in 2D but often doesn't work in 3D once we consider grading, stormwater requirements, and other important factors.

Often this is noticed too late when the client was already promised a certain number of houses or building square feet on the site and gets frustrated when it has to be reduced.

Drafters/PEs must also keep in mind the client's budget throughout the design! Retaining walls, dirt import/export, and many other choices drafters make can become very expensive!

Picking an experienced drafter/PE will overall save you a ton of time and money!

Some contractors love change orders to make more profits! So design it right the first time to keep lasting relationships with your client!

(04/17/24)

LISP Routines allow drafters to write code to program specialty commands in AutoCAD which is great to significantly speed up repetitive tasks.
(LISP or AutoLISP stands for LISt Processing.)

(04/17/24)

What it sometimes feels like to do traffic studies with Synchro, or use the Vehicle Tracking software (Civil 3D extension) on concept plan designs to ensure the trucks have enough room for their maneuvers!

The animations in Synchro are really exciting. We can see how vehicles move around across several intersections and we can do several models to see which type of intersection work best based on existing traffic counts and future traffic predictions (traffic light with different parameters / roundabout / stop sign...).

The Vehicle Tracking extension / AutoTURN allows the site designer to see what modifications we need to make on concept plans. (Ex: widen the curb radii depending on the length of the trucks that will maneuver around the site, etc.). This software has hundreds of types of vehicle models built-in from passenger cars, SU-30 to WB-67 trucks, to buses or huge trucks with multi-trailers just to name a few.

(04/17/24)

When you have to make a slight detour to check out the sites you designed after you attended other meetings or events in random locations across the country...

(04/17/24)

This one is for the CAD techs out there who are on a grading overload and start seeing contours to label on the most unusual places... including perfectly flat dark grain wood surfaces.

(04/15/24)

Looking to enhance your team’s productivity with updated Civil 3D CAD standards? Reach out to us! We specialize in integrating innovative shortcuts and tools into your current CAD template while keeping your brand's identity, enabling your team to produce plan sets quicker. This efficiency boost means you can take on a greater number of projects annually. Let’s connect!