One of the topics discussed in the opening session was the search for a new User Group Leader for the Nashville area.  If you are reading this post and are interested, e-mail me and I would be happy to discuss it with you!

The morning breakout sessions featured Brad Williamson of  Progressive Technologies, Dana Parrish of SolidWorks Corp., & Rich Hall of Westwind Corp.  Brad gave two presentations  on Assembly Design & PDMWorks.  Dana gave an information packed presentation on the Who, What, When, & Why of COSMOS.  Rich gave an excellent presentation on Sheet Metal.

Next up was the lunch session.  We received one entry for the One Minute Tips Contest.  Chris Hairell of Gas House Inc. submitted a tip that describes how to insert symbols into drawing notes using Windows standard codes.  Here is his tip:

If you hold down the ALT button and type 0216 a Ø symbol pops up. This is great for eDrawings, SolidWorks Drawings, and DWGeditor.

Other combinations that work for symbols:

ALT+0153 =™ (Trade Mark)

ALT+0169=© (Copyright)

ALT+0174=® (Registered)

ALT+0176=° (Degrees)

ALT+0177=± (Tolerances)

ALT+0216=Ø (Diameter)

One caveat that was discovered with this tip is that you must use the “keypad” numerals if you are using a laptop keyboard.  Most laptops allow you to use a “Fn” key to mimic the keypad numbers on a normal keyboard.  If you have a Dell laptop you will find them on the right side of the keyboard.  A BIG thanks to Brian McElyea (the CADFANTIC himself) for figuring this one out as it had me stumped!

Since Chris was the only user to submit a One Minute Tip, he won the contest and choose the SolidWorks branded iPod Nano as his prize.  (Future SWUGN Summit attendees should take note of this.)  Congratulations Chris!

Next we raffled off three grand prizes and some SolidWorks SWAG in the form of hats, lens cleaners, and pens.  Major prize winners were:

Jeff Skinner – 3DConnexion Space Navigator

Jeff Hammock – Nvida QuadroFX 1700 video card

Dan Traylor – Free Admission to SolidWorks World 2009

Congratulations to all the prize winners.

The last part of the lunch session included a COSMOS FloWorks demonstration by Ramesh Lakshmipathy of SolidWorks Corp.

After lunch Brian McElyea and myself gave the presentation on CAD Management while Jeremiah Davis of ModernTech Mechanical presented some Tips and Tricks on Drawings. The rest of the afternoon sessions included sessions on  Imported Geometry and SolidWorks Tips and Tricks by me and a Weldments session by NASWUG-RSA president Gary Hall.

I can’t say enough about the users from Tennessee, Alabama, & Mississippi who attended this event.  Although we didn’t break the attendance record like last year, the enthusiasm and excitement at this year’s event was unmatched.

I would like to thank Richard Doyle for doing all the preparation work for the event which made my job easy today.  I’d also like to thank all the presenters whom all did an absolutely wonderful job.  I would especially like to thank Rich Hall, Dana Parrish, & Gary Hall for coming in early to help with setup and registration.  Also thanks to Brian McElyea for taking pictures of the event.

A big thanks goes out the the event sponsors:  SolidWorks, 3DConnexion, Nvidia, & ModernTech Mechanical.

Over the next couple of days I will gather all the presentations for this event and post links to download them.

Stay tuned….more to come!

Related posts:

1. 2008 SWUGN Technical Summit – Nashville
2. SWUGN Technical Summit Nashville: Registration is now LIVE!
3. SWUGN Summit – Nashville
4. Coming Soon: SWUGN Summit – Nashville
5. 2007 SWUGN Summits Announced

The meeting started out tonight with an exciting announcement for NASWUG members.  SolidWorks is launching a Beta Program for the newly created Certified SolidWorks Associate (CSWA) exam.  Attendees tonight earned an opportunity to take the CSWA exam as part of the Beta experience for FREE!  This test is less strenuous as compared to the Certified SolidWorks Professional (CSWP) and will provide many members the opportunity to begin their journey towards certification in SolidWorks. To learn more about the CSWA, click on the link provided above.  After some other announcements, Dana was set to begin his presentation.  To me, demonstrations of analysis products are most effective when given using “real-world” examples.  This is exactly where the presentation started. Dana presented several design scenarios in which the audience was asked which design would yield the best results.  After all the “guesses” were made, the results were shown to the crowd along with descriptions and images showing just how those results were attained.  This really was a hit with the crowd! Also as part of the presentation, Dana showed off some of the enhancements to the COSMOS line of products in the 2008 release.  This was the first time that the new SolidWorks 2008 interface was shown publicly in Huntsville.  My favorite COSMOSWorks 2008 features shown were the new alternate mesher (This REALLY could save some time!), Design Insight Plots (Helps you remove materials without effecting structural integrity), and the improvements to Bolt Connectors!  You can read more about the enhancements by checking out the SolidWorks 2008 What’s New Guide or the COSMOSWorks What’s New rundown.   Dana did a great job with the presentation and answered many questions from the attendees in the Q&A session.  Thanks Dana!

I’m really proud of the turnout tonight, especially due to the fact that it was 106 degrees (F) in Huntsville today!  The long hot summer will be hopefully drawing to a close soon.  Next up for NASWUG members will be What’s New in SolidWorks 2008 presentations.  Thanks to all in attendance tonight!

Stay tuned…..MORE to come!

Related posts:

1. Richard Doyle visits Huntsville
2. Matt Speaks….in Huntsville
3. NASWUG & COSMOS FloWorks
4. 4 New CSWPs in Huntsville!
5. John McEleney visits Huntsville