EDSM, What are SOLIDWORKS User Groups Like?

Mail Call!

Dear Engineering Data Specialist Man, I have been wondering about attending a SOLIDWORKS user group meeting. What are they like?

Peyton M, Indianapolis Indiana.

That is a good question Peyton, as a matter of fact I was in your town last night for a user group meeting. Here is how it went:

After we went around the room introducing ourselves, Mike and Jon Caliguri gave a presentation on Delcam. This was the first time I had seen their SOLIDWORKS interface, and I liked it. The integration was great -it was hard to tell where SOLIDWORKS ended and Delcam started. It looked easy to use and passed my PDM test. [For a CAM package to pass my PDM test, it must be possible to store CAM data without having to get write access to the part.] Delcam solves this issue by putting the part into a blank assembly and storing the CAM data in the assembly. As a second bonus to this method if you save that assembly in SOLIDWORKS Enterprise PDM, EPDM would see that the part is inside of that assembly, thus the two files would be automatically linked via the “Contains” and “Where Used” functions.

Next came Don Hope‘s favorite part of the meeting. Dinner. 1. The Teppanyaki Grill easily had the largest selection of any Chinese buffet I have seen, and the food was very good too. (I gave it five out five of bellies.)  2. The price was right because SolidWorks picked up the tab.

During dinner I tried out some of my new dinner jokes. Chris Snider said they were funny, but his body language seemed to say else-wise.

Much to the surprise of Lisa Van Giesen, I provided the second program. My topic was on DriveWorks. Since everyone in the room had access to DriveWorksXpress, I spent most of my time on it. However we did have enough time to discuss some of the features of Driveworks Solo and Professional.

After my presentation, there was a little time left for some tips and tricks. Three members brought up special CAD challenges they were having, and as a group we were able to come up with satisfying solutions for two of them.

Lastly, door prizes were passed out, a song was sung and we went home.