SWUGN Group Leader Spotlight – Maximilian de Arriz

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Since 1996, SOLIDWORKS User Groups have been a valuable resource for SOLIDWORKS users all over the world.  The SWUGN Committee and DS SOLIDWORKS provide ample support, but the real stars are the SOLIDWORKS User Group Leaders. Every couple of weeks we’ll spotlight one of our group leaders and the local user group chapter that they are responsible for leading.

Maximilian (Max) de Arriz – Eastern Shore SOLIDWORKS User Group

Max

 

I’m used to our SOLIDWORKS User Group Leaders showing a little excitement about their groups, but when Max de Arriz first contacted me about forming the Eastern Shore SOLIDWORKS User Group, it felt just a little different.  Fast forward to today, and his excitement hasn’t waned.  See if you can pick up on that in Max’s answers below.

 

 

Who are you and what do you do?
Maximilian de Arriz here, folks call me Max for short. I live on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in a small place called Chestertown.   It’s a beautiful scenic area, made even better with the knowledge that there is a factory tucked away in the town which manufactures parts for many industries. The company’s name is Dixon Valve & Coupling Company; I am a manufacturing engineer within the Automation Department. Automation is an area which has peaked Dixon’s interest over the past few years. That is where SOLIDWORKS comes in handy. I use SOLIDWORKS to design in-house automated systems in order to manufacture our parts. We create a variety of systems, from individual tools to whole robotic work centers.

Assembly

When did you first start learning/using SOLIDWORKS?
I first used SOLIDWORKS in the fall of 2011, and I haven’t stopped learning since. CAD isn’t new to me, I have utilized it for almost a decade now; SOLIDWORKS is definitely my favorite platform I’ve been exposed to.

Tell us a little about your SOLIDWORKS User Group. Are you the founder of the group?
Chestertown is a territory which has a great supply of SOLIDWORKS users, but has never had a user group.…. Until now! I am the proud founder of The Eastern Shore SOLIDWORKS User Group; the first user group on the shore.  In November of 2014, I took on the role of leader for the user group. At that time, I started planning the first meeting, which was held on January 14th 2015.

What was the best meeting you’ve had?
Probably the 3rd and most recent meeting. We had 14 attendees and 3 presenters; Tracey Phillips, Ed Horne, and myself. It wasn’t the largest meeting we have ever had, but it was on point and the group was great!

What was the worst meeting you’ve had?
Since there have only been three meeting so far it easy to pick the one I believe could be improved the most. Meeting #2. This meeting will be remember as “the great room change confusion of 2015.” We switched meeting location for this meetings and it confused about 6 members, or half the committed attendees who were unable to find the location. A solution to this problem has been discovered in the way of utilizing my advertising skills.

WrongWayPhoto

What have you learned personally from your UG?
Besides the multitude of tips and tricks which come from the many presenters, I have learned that users utilize SOLIDWORKS differently everywhere! We have users who are students just beginning to learn about SOLIDWORKS all the way through professional users who can create injection molds, intricate machined parts, robots, FEA & design studies, motion studies, post process behind the scenes of SOLIDWORKS using macros. The wealth of knowledge a user group brings together is staggering and truly humbling.

How many users are in the group?
So far there are 25 members. Not all members are regular attendees, however there has been a lot of buzz generated about the group and our email list has grown to 37 people who have asked to be notified about future meetings. Last meeting group membership grew by 25%.

Why should people attend a SOLIDWORKS User Group meeting?
If it isn’t evident from the rest of this entry, I’m pretty excited about these meetings. I have a lot of really good reasons as to why users should be just as excited and plan to attend. So far there are 25 other people that are very close to my level of excitement if not more so… There you go, 25 really good reasons. That number keeps growing.

Anything else you’d like to add?
Check out some group response analytics to the meeting on July 22nd, 2015:Chart

Thanks Max, and continued success with the user group.  We’ll see you in Dallas next year!

Richard Doyle

Richard Doyle

My official title is Senior User Advocacy & SolidWorks User Groups - but most people just call me "The User Group Guy". I've been a SolidWorks user since 1997, and was one of the founding members of the SWUGN Committee. Since starting the Central Texas SolidWorks User Group in 1999, my career path has led me to DS SolidWorks and a dream job supporting the SolidWorks User Group Network worldwide.
Richard Doyle

@https://twitter.com/swugn

Richard Doyle