The Civil 3D Jedi Finds New Hope in 3D Visualization

Today’s special guest is Juan Soto, famously known as the Civil 3D Jedi.  He’s a civil designer in the Fort Worth area, Texas, who has worked 20+ years in the engineering side of things, both as CAD manager and 3D marketing visualization specialist. 

As with many people in the industry, his first contact with visualization and 3D models was not related to work at all. In fact, what got him into this world was aviation, even though he ended up going into civil engineering afterwards. He started modeling for fun, toying with the tools to see how far he could take his “virtual twins” with the limited pieces of software of the past. Now, with the technology just getting better every day, we can bring more reality and accuracy to the models, such as using the correct terrain elevation, texture, etc. 

Juan and Sam discuss the collaboration between artists and engineers in visualization, the technology that allows them to combine their expertise and create both aesthetically appealing and technically accurate models, as well as Juan’s work of using Unreal Engine to extract the metadata from his company’s highly detailed BIM models so that they do not lose them whenever they take them to other platforms. On top of that, Juan also lays out his expectations for the future of the industry using Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. 

If you’re in the visualization world and interested in being on the show, don’t forget to contact us and spread the word about the field we’re in. Connect with Sam on LinkedIn or shoot us an email!

Resources Mentioned

Juan Soto - LinkedIn / Twitter (@civil3d_jedi)

Beyond CAD - Website / Vision Weekly Update / Video Updates

Sam Lytle - LinkedIn / [email protected]

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