Tri-Valley SWUG Kick-Off Meeting

Kenneth Barrentine has started a new SolidWorks User Group in the southern end of the San Francisco East Bay called the Tri-Valley SolidWorks User Group (T-VSWUG).  (I originally was abbreviating it as TVSWUG, but I just realized there is already a group with those initials).  He held the group’s first meeting a few days ago.  It appears to be a great success.  As meetings and SWUGs go, this was one big start! 

Vic Leventhal

We had Vic Leventhal (former COO of SolidWorks Corp and current Group Executive, Dassault Systemes) give the keynote speech of the evening about the history of SolidWorks.  His presentation of fun and informative.  He even gave out $50 of his own money! 

I personally give a presentation about SWW8.  In attendance, we had Gabi Jack, who recorded a video of the event.  In fact, her blog article about this meeting has edited videos of Vic Leventhal’s presentation.  Her article also includes details about the event from a unique and refreshing perspective.

Kenneth's Demonstration

Kenneth conducted a live demonstration of various tips and tricks, including topics like showing how to find the origin of a detail view for ordinate dimensioning.  The format was semi-open, with frequent audience participation.  I was impressed by Kenneth because he made hand-outs that listed the topics that he was going to cover in his presentation.  This allowed people to follow along, and they knew what to expect.

Oh, and what a day to attend.  Prizes, prizes, prizes.  Just about everyone went home with something.  I apologize for not noting his name, but here’s the grand prize winner of the 3Dconnexion SpaceExplorer.

Grand Prize Winner

I believe there was a little over 50 people in attendance.  This photo shows that it was pretty much a full house.  I thank Kenneth for organizing this event and getting this new group started.  I personally look forward to attending more of his meetings.

Author: fcsuper

As a drafter, mechanical designer and CAD engineer, I've been in the mechanical design field since 1991. For the first 8 years of my career, I was an AutoCAD professional. I utilized AutoLISP and many other AutoCAD customization features to streamline drafting activities for 6+ drafters and designers. I authored several custom functions, one of which was published in the March 1997 issue of Cadalyst Magazine. Since 1998, I've been used SolidWorks non-stop. I've worked to utilize the SolidWorks' user environment to simplify drafting and design activities for 20+ engineers. I've created this website to provide current information about SolidWorks from a variety of contributors. More recently, I am now employed by Dassault Systemes as SOLIDWORKS Sr. Product Definition Manager to improve drawing, annotation and MBD related areas.

3 thoughts on “Tri-Valley SWUG Kick-Off Meeting”

  1. Oops! I was also calling it TVSWUG! Thanks for noticing that it’s actually T-VSWUG! It was really a great meeting!

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