Hi everyone,

I'm a civil engineer and doing my PhD on the side. Over the last couple of years AI has completely taken over my feed. At first I just ignored the noise. Then I got curious about what these tools could actually do for normal people, and it changed how I think about them. People used to assume you had to be a programmer to use AI. You really don't.

For me the best use of AI is handling the small stuff. I'm not interested in having a bot write my emails or answer random questions. Even the most basic gpt or claude models can handle plenty of engineering workflows.

Last month I put together my first workflow to clean up project review notes.

I gave the agent 3 docs:
1. A Word file with comments
2. Our current tracker in Excel
3. The rules for how we tag project tasks

I went with Workbuddy instead of Codex, mostly because people love spending money on giant models that do way more than they need. Paying $20/month for Plus doesn't make sense for my budget. Workbuddy gives free, unlimited access to DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Hy4 preview, which is more than enough for a decent assistant. Occasionally I'll use the free credits to try out GPT 6-sol, but I keep that to a minimum.

The whole thing is pretty simple:

I drop the files in, and the assistant pulls out every note and builds an Excel tracker. The sheet has comment number, reviewer, section, original text, owner, reply, and status. Then it goes through again to flag duplicate notes, missing names, blank replies, and stale items. At the end it spits out a simple HTML page showing how many open items are left.

It took a few tries to get the prompt format right. Once it looked good, I told Workbuddy to remember the rules. Now when new files come in I just drop them and say "sort out these docs," and it runs the exact same steps on its own.

I've still got more workflows to build, and some of my work is confidential so it has to stay within our security rules. But this past month my desk has been way less chaotic, and I waste a lot less time clicking between files.

I plan to test this on more of the boring stuff :) How does everyone feel about it?

I’ve been out of school for over a year. I started at this company before my senior year of college as an intern, I’ve been working full time since I graduated. So I’m about to hit my 3 years with this company. I work in transportation. I want to grow my salary. I’ve been wanting to start applying to different jobs, I don’t think I want to go into water because that would also mean me starting all over again. I also want to move away from design. What should be my next step? Should I look for more project manager positions? Should I go more into the contracting industry? What will get me more money? I also live in California

What career paths within transportation engineering have less to do with drawings and using software to draw polylines all day

I’m a Civil EIT working in land development, and if you’re in the industry too, you know how tedious it can be to look up codes and regulations.

I tried using ChatGPT/Claude for this like everyone else, and the problem isn’t that they’re useless; it’s that they’re confidently wrong in ways that are hard to catch. Ask for the section, and it’ll give you one that looks right and doesn’t exist. If you already know the answer, you can spot it; if you’re looking it up because you don’t know (most EI's lolol), you can’t. And in this line of work, “the AI said so” is not something you want to explain to a PE.

So I built something that doesn’t guess. It’s called Groundwork: https://groundwork.sydstudio.ai

How it works

• It’s a searchable library of Florida land development codes: Florida Statutes, Florida Administrative Code, all five water management districts, and the LDCs for about 45 counties and 130 cities/towns (heaviest in Central Florida).
• You give it an address or a jurisdiction and a question. It figures out which codes govern that site (state + WMD + county + city), finds the best-matching sections, and returns the actual code text with the section number and a link back to the source so you can verify it yourself.
• The key difference from asking an AI cold: it only returns text that’s actually in the library. It’s not generating a code section from memory.
• It runs as an MCP server, so you can plug it into Claude, ChatGPT, or whatever AI client you use and ask questions in plain English — the AI does the talking, Groundwork does the looking up.
• It’s reference only, so it quotes and cites; it doesn’t interpret.

Limitations (being upfront)

• Florida only, and coverage isn’t uniform. Big counties and Central FL municipalities are in; plenty of small towns aren’t yet.
• Codes change. The library is a snapshot, so if a county just adopted an LDC amendment, Groundwork may be behind. The source link is there for exactly that reason — always check.
• It won’t hallucinate a section, but it can still pull the wrong real section — a definitions article instead of the zoning table, or the county code when the city’s applies. Retrieval isn’t perfect. The citation makes it easy to catch, but you still have to look.
• It’s text. Scanned PDFs, plan sheets, exhibit maps, and anything that’s really a drawing are hit or miss.
• It has the ability to display tables, but sometimes they get a little wonky, so also check the source link.

What I’d like from you

• If you are in land development in Florida, try it on a question you already know the answer to and tell me where it’s wrong or where it missed. That’s the most useful feedback I can get.
• Which jurisdictions would you want added?
• What’s the code question you look up most often? I’d rather tune it for the real repetitive stuff than for edge cases.
• Anything you’d want it to do that it doesn’t: pre-app checklists, stormwater criteria summaries by district, etc.

Not selling anything; it’s free. I just want to know if it’s useful to anyone besides me.

To all the people here who are still delusional about AI, who keep saying the quality is garbage, that it’s not reliable, and that you’re safe because engineering requires human “judgment”, because all you’ve used is ChatGPT and Copilot:

Please do me a favor.

Download Claude. Use the Opus 5.5 model with high or extra effort level. Ask it to do any real engineering task that requires judgment, something you would normally keep for yourself or ask a junior engineer to do.

Then look at the result. And come back and tell me if you still think AI is not a danger to you, and that you’re safe because of “judgment.”

If you refuse this last warning, then you deserve to be replaced and left behind in the future.

Hi, I am a first year student in civil engineering. Just wanted to know about the best free online sources to get better at the subject based on everyone's experience (specifically, applied maths, chemistry and mechanics).

Hey y'all,

I recently landed a cool job in construction (business/data side) as a civil engineering student. I'm 31 so I kinda have to maintain full employment. I'm enrolled in an in-person civil program (they're regarded in my area), but I'm nearing the end of the possible classes I can take during the evenings. I don't want to give up on my civil journey that I've relatively just started. Should I explore UND (online civil engineering). It's relatively cheap, I can navigate full-time employment and directly apply what I'm learning to my current role. It's ABET accredited. And I'm confident that content knowledge I can really learn on my own.

How do we feel about the online route? Particularly for older students who are tied up with options? Is it worth it? Should I try to work things out with my new employer? Should I do online for a few semesters and then transfer back when I'm a junior/senior and there are more evening classes available? What would you do?

I’ve worked on projects in both countries and had to move between ECP 203, the Saudi Building Code, and ACI. A few things caught me off guard:

• [A real difference you noticed, e.g. load combinations, seismic provisions, or cover requirements]
• [Something about documentation or review processes that differs between the two markets]
• [A mistake you’d warn juniors about]

For those who’ve worked across multiple codes: how do you keep the differences straight? Any resources you’d recommend?

Hi! We’re 4th-year Civil Engineering students working on a steel warehouse design project. We’re really struggling with the manual design of steel members, connections, and base plates. Are there any structural engineers willing to guide or teach us through the process? We’re eager to learn and would really appreciate the help. We used MIDAS btw for the structure. Thank you! 🙏🏻🥹

It's 2026 and American civil engineering firms still treat work life balance like it's the 50's. I got an offer from a company (large international company) and their letter says that I will start with 2 weeks of PTO annually (their policy states that new employees start with that for 5 years and then they increase their PTO to 3 weeks for another 5 and so on). This is absolutely pathetic especially since I'm 10 years into my career. I'm absolutely going to negotiate for a higher annual PTO but I highly doubt they will accept.

A few of my friends work in tech and they get 3 months of paid parental leave, while we only get like what, two weeks? Yeah two weeks to raise an infant completely dependant on you. My brother works in finance and he gets 4 weeks of PTO plus two additional weeks of "purchased PTO" (you deduct a portion of your paycheck to buy the extra annual PTO).

You try to explain work-life balance to the old-farts in this industry but then they go full Protestant mode on you and guilt you into thinking that you're lazy and have a poor work ethic and start talking about their jobs back in the day like their day-to-day was putting out oil fires in Kuwait. I mean God forbid I have a life I can tell my future grandkids about.

May the old-farts finally retire and this industry catch up to the modern times in terms of work-life balance.

What are the necessary skills to grow rapidly in this Domain,Tbh i like the challenges and the love the output

Tho i don't like to keep drafting how can one exceed in this domain?

PS i have 2 years of Experience Rn!

My company is 20 years old we make everything from highways to commercial to residential structures, we deal in tens of millions, I read BOQs and plans all day, but I wonder what people want- on every level what’s a painful problem that the industry has neglected, feel free to comment or DM me for any further discussions, this is for research only. Thanks.

I’m a few years into my career as a structural engineer, working on projects in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Along the way I’ve had to switch between ECP 203, the Saudi Building Code, and ACI, and a few things surprised me:

1. Cube vs. cylinder strength: ECP uses fcu (cube strength), while ACI and SBC use f'c (cylinder strength). A "C30" in Egypt is not the same as f'c = 30 MPa, so mixing them up in a model or spec is an easy way to over- or under-design.

2. Load combinations and seismic: ECP 203 uses 1.4D + 1.6L, while SBC and ACI (via ASCE 7) use 1.2D + 1.6L. Seismic is a bigger shift: ECP 201 works from seismic zones, while SBC 301 uses mapped spectral accelerations, site class, and r/Cd/Ω₀ factors.

3. ETABS stiffness modifiers: a model can look fine until you notice the design code and cracked-section modifiers don't match the code you're supposed to follow. They change drift and period results a lot.

4. Rebar grades and detailing: Egypt typically uses 360/520 and 400/600 steel, while Saudi projects use ASTM Grade 60 (about 420 MPa). Detailing that works in the model can still turn into congestion at beam-column joints on site.

Edit: sorry, I accidentally posted this with placeholder text. This is the real version. How do you keep the differences between codes straight? Any side-by-side reference you'd recommend?

Hello,
Does anyone have a PDF copy of the textbook CSI Project Delivery Practice Guide- Third Edition?
Or know how to get it for free/cheap 😖😖😖
TIA

what tools or software can be used for fault tree analysis? it is programmed or there are softwares to use?

I’ve (33M) recently accepted my first official Project Manager position. Over the last 4 years I’ve gotten serious into gaining management experience, certs, and licenses (PE). I admit the first half of my career I was lost and going with the motions. But I’m happy to have a better grasp on my strengths in this field of work now.

My background is primarily in municipal infrastructure, transportation, and urban street lighting/signal upgrades. While I’ve done a great deal of project coordination and worked my way into leadership responsibilities, you can imagine I’m still a bit nervous 😅.

What advice would you give a new PM? What do you wish you’d known starting out, and what helped you become successful in the role?

Today on a long-ish drive I realise that I pay attention to a lot of things in the landscape that I wouldn't ever have noticed before I became a civil engineer. Some of today's 'highlights' were:

An interestingly-shaped pylon

A well vegetated and well functioning SuDS scheme alongside the road

A weir constructed from a series of gabions

A rather rickety looking wooden footbridge across a road

An unusual pattern of cracks in clay soil

Various road repairs that were needed

Once upon a time I would just listen to music and notice interesting trees!

What do you notice now that you never did before?

Honestly jealous of this find. Would wear despite MUTCD noncompliance.

I’m fairly new to the traffic engineering industry, but I’ve always understood the following signal rules to apply when driving in the USA:

• Green arrow = protected right, left, or u-turn with no other conflicts

• Green ball = permission to travel straight, permissive right, left, or u-turn where you may be yielding to pedestrians and/or other vehicles

• Flashing yellow arrow = same as above for turns except you will be yielding to pedestrians and/or other vehicles

• Red arrow = must stop, not allowed to turn right or left

• Red ball = must stop, may turn right on red when safe to do so or left on red if both intersecting streets are a one-way

All of the above assume no additional signage restrictions like “No Turn On Red” or “U-Turn Yield To Right Turn” for example.

Recently, I had a jurisdiction in another part of my state trying to argue this configuration was fine for a brand new intersection. Obviously pedestrians always have the right of way, but this configuration fundamentally feels wrong. Am I crazy to push back?

Pictured location here

Sort of tongue in cheek on the other post title about not wanting to be on C3D all day drafting.

I DO want to be on C3D drafting all day. Please give me the 60% markups in the bluebeam session and let me listen to music all day with my brain turned off. Please let me move leaders, turn off layers, adjust border and sheet layouts, change haul routes, change text, etc. Please let me search around old projects for an obscure detail you thought you'd never touch again and change it to specifc dimensions you need. Let me look at FAA Advisory Circulars and redraw updated airport markings on a CAD drawing.

I'm only an intern but I've been an intern for about a year and a half and I love doing things like this, yes I've done some design but the vast majority of what I do are markups.

Am I setting myself up for failure if supposedly AI will be able to replace what I'm doing In a couple years? It sure doesn't feel like it, especially because im so early in my career.

I just want to say that I enjoy being a CADmonkey and would choose it in every life

I’m an electrical engineering student considering an internship with AECOM’s NYC Transportation Department next summer. Since it’s my last summer before graduation, I’m trying to choose a company where I’d have a good chance of getting a full-time offer afterward. Does anyone know how often AECOM hires its interns full-time, especially in the NYC office? I’d also love to hear about the work-life balance, typical hours, hybrid schedule, and whether overtime is paid. How’s the job security? Are layoffs common when projects slow down?