Central Wisconsin SolidWorks Users Group
Subject: Meeting Minutes
Meeting Date: July 28th, 2009
From: Raj Deshpande
The second SolidWorks User Group meeting for Central Wisconsin area was held on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM. The meeting was held at Kumon Math and Reading Center, 1345 8th Street South, Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54494. We followed a set agenda for the meeting.
Agenda: 5:00-5:05 Welcome
5:05-5:15 Introductions
Name
Industry/Affiliation
SW Experience
Expectations from SW Users Group
5:15-5:6:00 Keynote speaker – Christopher Schaefer – Applications Engineer - Graphics System
Subject: DriveWorks
For background information of DriveWorks visit www.driveworks.co.uk/more.html.
6:00-6:30 Presentation – User Group Website/blog
Caleb Bahler – User Group Member
6:30:7:00 Refreshments/Informal gathering
The meeting started on time. After the introductions, Dennis Fritz, Account Manager for Graphics System gave a presentation on DriveWorks. Christopher Schaefer was not available for the presentation. DriveWorks is design automation software for SolidWorks. It allows users to set design rules to create many configurations of SW assemblies and parts. User interface is simple to follow. Based on the user input, design variations as well as drawings are created automatically. DriveWorks is intended to save time for products that use several design variations. DriveWorks can be used as a substitute to design tables, multiple configurations, and API.
We briefly talked about the User Group blog. Caleb Bahler could not attend the meeting. Members liked the blog design and felt that the blog needs to be active so people can visit it frequently to get new updates.
We focused our group discussion on how to keep group interesting and add new members. We discussed many activities that would require group involvement. Mark Swanson suggested a group project that all of us can share design responsibility. He suggested participating in Nekoosa Pumpkin Chuckin contest by designing a pumpkin throwing machine. Everyone agreed that this would be a good group design project. Nekoosa Pumpkin Fest is scheduled every year in mid October. Our next meeting is scheduled on Wednesday, October 7th so that we can discuss the project and may decide to check out the contest during the following weekends.
We again discussed possibility of rotating meeting locations between Wisconsin Rapids, Stevens Point, and Wausau. All users were open to the idea. To accomplish this, we need local Users from Stevens Point and Wausau area to take the lead to arrange the meetings locally. The next meeting is scheduled on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009. The meeting will be advertized on SWUGN Calendar (SolidWorks User Group Network) as well as User Group blog.
For the next meeting we are asking group member to present 15 minutes each on their favorite SW topics. So please let me know if you would like to give a presentation. We need four to five volunteers.
Follow-up:
Next meeting: Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Time 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Meeting Location: Kumon Math and Reading Center
1345 8th Street South (Shopko Plaza Mall Shops)
Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54494
Facilitator: Raj Deshpande
Phone: (715) 424-3636 Ext. 4632 (work)
(715) 423-7323 (Meeting Location)
E-mail: rddeshpa@renlearn.com
(Mention: SW User Group in Subject column)
Topics: Member Presentations (15 minutes each)
(Inform Raj on the topic and time request)
Discuss group project (Pumpkin Chukin)
Please contact Raj if you want to present or make an announcement in the meeting.
Participants for May 19th meeting:
Carl Johnson – Diversified Woodcrafts
Chris VanAsten – Clover Industries
Dennis Fritz – Graphics System
Eric Pilsl – Graphics System
Jeff Pepp – BDT Inc.
Kent Huchthausen – FRP Composites Inc.
Mark Ptak – MSTC
Mark Swanson - Renaissance Learning
Raj Deshpande - Renaissance Learning
Shane Burling – Point Precision
Stephen Turner – Renaissance Learning
