First Ever DraftSight User Group Meeting

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Despite a lot of rain, more than 30 people attended the first ever New England Area DraftSight User Group meeting on October 28th.  Attendees came from all over the New England area to the DS SOLIDWORKS campus in Waltham, and nobody left disappointed.

A DraftSight user group was the brainchild of Andreas Kulik, and the New England area meeting was organized by Alia Murphy, Wai-Ming Chu, Ram Chilukuri, and Suzanne Locke. Alia and Suzanne greeted attendees upon their arrival.

Alia_Suz

And while this meeting was organized and hosted by SOLIDWORKS, the number one action item prior to the meeting was to identify a group leader and/or officers to lead the group into the future.

Andreas started off the meeting by welcoming everyone, and provided a brief overview of DraftSight including its part in the SOLIDWORKS solution portfolio. He also spoke about the future product direction of DraftSight. He then introduced the new product manager for DraftSight, Wai-Ming Chu. Wai-Ming passed around a brief survey, and introduced other members of the DraftSight team.

Wai

After the obligatory introductions and overviews, the real meat of the meeting was underway.  Wai-Ming treated the crowd to a look at the as of yet unreleased DraftSight 2016.  This in-depth session revealed some new features, new commands, and a host of customization options.  After the session, DraftSight Senior R&D Manager Ram Chilikuri took on a room full or questions.

After a brief break, and some nice giveaway prizes, the floor was opened up for a roundtable discussion on DraftSight.  There were some very enthusiastic members that provided a host of opinions, constructive criticisms, and ideas for new functionality.

After the technical sessions, Alia took the stage to talk about the benefits of being a DraftSight User Group leader.  She quickly turned to an expert in the field, SWUGN’s own John Matrishon of the Western Mass SOLIDWORKS User Group.  John did a fantastic job, and was quite enthusiastic as he talked of his won experience leader a user group.  Robert Teele, the group leader at the Boston South SOLIDWORKS User Group was also in attendance, and offered up some support as well.

 

leaders

And we have a leader!!  Joe Davis will assume leadership of NEADUG starting immediately.  Joe has plenty of experience running a Toastmaster’s group in the New England area, and while he admits that his DraftSight experience is limited, he doesn’t see that as an issue.  I’ve been in touch with Joe several times since the meeting, and I can tell that he will do a great job!

All in all, the first ever DraftSight User Group meeting was a resounding success.  Thanks to the DraftSight team, our local SOLIDWORKS User group leaders, and to all of the folks that showed up to see what this was all about.

group

 

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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