Behind the Design: Josh Mayes Spreads the Red to Inspire Others About SOLIDWORKS Design
Meet Josh Mayes, an Ohio-based design engineer, user group leader, SOLIDWORKS Champion, and lover of SOLIDWORKS, whose mission is to “spread the red” by sharing his passion for SOLIDWORKS Design.
Josh Mayes has always loved making drawings. “From the time I first started making drawings, I was addicted,” he said. When he was a freshman in high school he would compete with a buddy in drafting class to make the best drawings in the shortest time. “Getting a B was not acceptable,” said Josh and he often worked several assignments ahead of the class and eagerly waited for the instructor to assign the next one.
He loved drafting so much that he spent his lunch and study periods in the school’s woodshop, designing and building things. Growing up in The Plains, Ohio (the now famous hometown of Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow), “as the oldest of four, helping my single mom raise my siblings, I didn’t have access to tools at home. We got creative and made do with what we had, so I was truly fascinated by the resources of the shop and what could be built with the right set of plans and materials. My shop teachers and peers taught me and encouraged me to keep going.”
Josh is very grateful to have had the opportunity to experience the evolution of design from old-school drafting before the computer. He recounted the process in great detail. “In many ways it was truly great. There was a love for the process. From squaring up a fresh piece of vellum paper and taping its corners carefully to your drawing board, sharpening your pencil, and stabbing the foam ring to remove any residual graphite powder that might contaminate your fresh, clean slate. Planning and measuring out the perfect scale and spacing for your 2D drawing views, carefully laying the first light lines and compass arcs, and then finally committing that heavy HB [hardness and blackness] lead to paper, dragging and spinning your pencil tip along your T-square edge with just the right pressure to define the hard edges of your part. If you made a minor mistake, no biggie, you could bring out your trusty eraser shield and precisely remove an errant line with a soft eraser with little to no harm done, but if you made a bigger miscalculation, it was time to play waste can basketball.”
He took pleasure knowing that the second time around would be better, and when he finally got the drawing right, it was clean, concise, and accurate. “Or at least you thought so,” explained Josh. “Then the design changes would come from the boss, or manufacturing folks would tell you that your design was not going to work, so it was back to the drawing board.” (literally)
Josh’s first career job in the late 1990’s was as a draftsman at Zed Industries, which hired him based on his high school drafting portfolio. He had previously attended Ohio University in Athens, where he pursued mechanical engineering and was introduced to 2D computer-aided design (CAD) and industrial manufacturing processes.
After his second year of college, he found out he was going to be a dad and moved to the Dayton area, where manufacturing and educational opportunities “far eclipsed those found in the economically depressed southeastern region of our state. Dayton had its own issues with manufacturing declines from its previous heydays, but for me it was a whole new world of opportunity.”
Josh was highly motivated to jumpstart his career and education, as he now had to support his young son, so he enrolled full-time at Sinclair Community College, where he discovered 3D CAD software and was first introduced to SOLIDWORKS in 1998 (version 97 Plus). “Seeing the power of 3D parametric CAD was mind-blowing!”
After learning 3D CAD, Josh soon got a new job designing for Delphi Automotive using Unigraphics/NX (Unix-based) CAD software, where he made model-driven drawings that were always instantly up-to-date with the design. “I found designing and even making mistakes was more fun, because it was easy to adapt the model to any changes that my boss could imagine. The power of parametric design was truly incredible!”
Once graduated, Josh went to work for a much smaller company called The Gem City Engineering Co. and became the sole design engineer in their Kiosk division, where he had the freedom to take his conceptual designs all the way to the finish line, which he said was a blessing and a curse. It was a big challenge, but he was up for it. The previous designer was only experienced in 2D design, and since they knew Josh had experience in 3D CAD, they offered to buy him his tool of choice.
Coincidentally, they already purchased a license of SOLIDWORKS for a previous project. Since he had used SOLIDWORKS back in college and thought it was easy to use, he decided to run with it.
Josh’s first modeling exercise using SOLIDWORKS back in college was a simple challenge, where he replicated a ring toy his son had. He recalled that the basic extrude and revolve shapes were simple to sketch and model in SOLIDWORKS. He was a bit nervous, as now he had to jump into a new job and develop a new product based solely on a conceptual sales rendering. He was expected to fully engineer the product from scratch and have a prototype built for the customer in just a couple months!
After requesting to be sent to a SOLIDWORKS value-added reseller (VAR) for training, the company said that there was no time until after the first project was delivered. Josh had to take it upon himself to figure out how to design and model an assembly with over 100 parts. Though it was challenging, he managed to pull it off, and he learned a lot about sheet metal design in the process by working with the local manufacturer just around the block.
After completing the first project, he finally got to take the SOLIDWORKS Essentials training, where he learned how to do things much easier, telling his boss they could have saved a month if he had learned these lessons earlier.
Soon after embarking on his SOLIDWORKS journey and connecting with his VAR, he began meeting other users at a time when the growing SOLIDWORKS network was just forming. “These people were smart and freely giving of their time and knowledge. They loved to share their know-how and tips for how to best utilize these simple yet powerful tools most effectively. It was contagious. I wanted to share, too! Whenever you met another designer who was using SOLIDWORKS, there was an instant bond and camaraderie. This software was more than just a powerful new tool. It was all about community.”
Wanting to engage more with the community, Josh started attending user group meetings of what officially became the Miami Valley SOLIDWORKS User Group (MVSWUG) in 2007. “These regional meetups gave folks a direct connection to this organically growing community. Even those of us working in small organizations now have a network of people and resources to further our own learning path.” He is now co-leader of MVSWUG and is proud to help “continue to foster this spirit of sharing new and better ways to design.”
Josh is showing his “redness” with fellow MVSWUG members at 3DEXPERIENCE World 2023 and is celebrating his user group’s 15th anniversary and 100th member.
Josh attributes a lot of his growth in those early days to the SOLIDWORKS User Group Network (SWUGN) community and to the SOLIDWORKS Certification program. He now holds 11 certifications, including Certified SOLIDWORKS Expert (CSWE) since 2012, and has maintained a role as a SOLIDWORKS Champion since 2021, which has enabled him to help mentor others daily in his current role as Senior CAD and PDM Administrator at The University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI).
Today, he continues to learn new tricks with SOLIDWORKS tools all the time. “The evolution that started in my early years doing board drafting continues to this day as new tools are developed and released, including new cloud-based and AI [artificial intelligence] tools that enable more automation, simulation, and collaboration, empowering designers to be even more productive…”
Though he’s thankful things worked out the way they did, he commented how, “In hindsight, the truth is I probably would not have learned nearly as much going into training without first struggling through things ‘the hard way’ and figuring it out on my own. I give credit to the software designers, and to my first trainer, Larry Moore of Microsolid Solutions, who provided me with these amazingly simple yet powerful tools and the growth mindset that has since propelled me to continue this track for over 28 years with no end in sight.”
Over the course of his career, Josh has developed his CAD and design engineering background in special machines, automotive, reverse engineering, interactive kiosks, rapid prototyping/tooling, robotics, electric motors, cots/stretchers, and most recently aerospace/defense at his job at UDRI, where his team supports sustainment efforts for the United States Air Force utilizing advanced manufacturing and materials development. He enjoys continuous improvement, learning and teaching others, and especially spreading his passion for all things SOLIDWORKS.
When Josh is not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife and kids, local food and music, traveling, photography, hiking, camping, and finding outdoor adventure on his motorcycle. His son Reed is now 27 and is a Lead Flight Dispatcher for NetJets. In addition, he and his wife, Krissy, have two teenagers, Myles (17) and Kara (15).
Other fun facts about Josh:
- He has 68 hats of various types, and 13 of them are SOLIDWORKS-related!
- His favorite food is sushi.
- His favorite shows are anything by Quentin Tarantino or Star Wars.
- His favorite band is “anything local that gets me out for a date night with my wife Krissy.”
- He is currently reading a book called ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ recommended by his friend and fellow Champion, Sanket Patil.
- His favorite place to vacation is America’s National Parks (most recently Badlands N.P. for a photography workshop).
- If you ever visit Ohio, he recommends Hocking Hills State Park or the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton.
- He lives by the mantra of the late John Wooden, who said, ‘If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?’ “This quote may have been in the context of basketball, but it certainly applies to engineering, and I suppose has been my mantra even before I heard it.”
Going forward, he hopes to inspire others to push their own boundaries in their careers and product designs and wants to continue to #SpreadTheRED ♥️ and passion about SOLIDWORKS Design.
You can catch Josh in Houston for 3DEXPERIENCE World 2026, where he will be presenting a breakout session called “Take Control of Configurations with Excel Design Tables.” If you’re planning to attend the World event in February, Josh hopes you’ll attend his session or catch up with him for a selfie, preferably wearing your RED, he said.
To learn more about the SOLIDWORKS Champion program, visit: https://www.solidworks.com/community/solidworks-champions
For more information on SWUGN, visit: https://community.swugn.org/
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