Dedicated Registered AutoCAD Workers
Users Group - Fort Wayne, IN area

After our February 15th meeting, the president of the DRAW Users Group sent out a survey to those attending and later to the rest of the group to get a feel on where the group needs to go and how to get there. Here is a summary of the survey questions and the responses:

How long should the meeting last?
The main material needs to be done by 8:30 or 8:45 pm. Then open things up as a general session freeing people to go and allowing for one on one interaction and networking.

Does Thursday fit more of your schedules than Wednesday or does it not make a difference?
Most did not care, but there were more in favor of Wednesday over Thursday.
 
Was this meeting helpful or a waste of time?
Most felt that it was helpful, but there were sections that did not pertain and some that were over their heads.

What would you change?
Aside from the response of adding the curriculum of sponge bathing strippers, most of the responses were similar. Many of the responses said that we need to stay with the program and not get sidetracked. We bounced around all over the place. Some never got to see the products that they came to see because they had to leave. They felt that all they got was commercials for the group and for the dealers. Have a section for group interaction to ask questions and open new topics, but keep that in a section by itself.

Several suggested more individual participation and less from the dealers. As long as the dealers keep talking the individuals will not participate.

Do you like having the meetings at CAD Associates or would you rather have them elsewhere?
The majority of folks preferred having the meetings at Tekni to be able to use the classroom and not worry about being kicked out too early. The others did not mind it at CAD Associates as long as it was a users group meeting and not a CAD Associates event.

Do you like for the dealers to be as involved as they are or would you like them to participate less?
Dealer input is a valuable asset. Current involvement is ok, but it would be nice to have other dealers involved too. The dealers should not be too commercial on their wares or services. Others suggested having demos and presentations from out side the group. If someone is doing a presentation, the dealers need to let them do the presentation.

Did you like having the pizza and beer there?
Having food available seemed to be pretty unanimous. Most liked pizza, but some were open to other foods as well. A couple indicated that they did not have time to eat dinner and be at the meeting on time.

Beer was a bit more controversial. Some like the Imports and not domestic beer. Some would prefer to have pop and coffee and many said they would like to see a variety of sodas along with the beer. Some suggested only having the beer every third or fourth meeting.

Questions were also raised as to what if someone had a couple beers and then was involved in a wreck on the way home. What would our liability be?

What ever we eat, there seems to be a variety of tastes. One indicated that they were vegetarian and others were glad that there was meat only pizza.

What if we charged $2 or so a head to have the pizza and beer?
Charging minimal cost for food and/or drinks was pretty much unanimously approved Okayed. Maybe free pizza, but charge for the beer. Maybe start charging dues again, but include food at all meetings. Only one person thought that charging a minimal charge would drive people away from the group.

Would you be interested in hosting a DRAW meeting at your location?
Dave said “absolutely- except my cubicle is kind of small”
A couple said maybe later, most were not interested in hosting something elsewhere.

Should the meetings be more formal or do you like the informal meetings?
Informal rules! However, it is still desired to have structure to keep the meeting on track.

Do you want more hands on experience or more show and tell type programs?
It seems that most would like a mix of both would be best but include more general discussions.

Are you interested in seeing other CAD packages like Solidworks and Solid Edge or do you just want to stick to AutoCAD products?
We were split down the middle on this question, but those that were interested in other products wanted to keep it to no more than two outside vendors per year.

What topics would you like to see covered?
AutoLISP, Visual LISP, VBA, DCL, Diesel, ActiveX, and any other programming that can be used with AutoCAD. Advanced level programming. Visual LISP and VBA should be at beginner programming level. Document management strategies and software, new hardware issues, tips and tricks, community outreach (schools or colleges especially), some generic windows and MS Office tips, views,3D models from 2D projections. AutoCAD LT (to compare it to regular AutoCAD). A full walk through of creating a 3D drawing in AutoCAD (not mechanical desktop or inventor) and seeing the output in paper space at different scales and then how to plot it. Layering standards, especially for the architectural world, plotting, CAM, dimensioning, rendering, 3D, the options dialog boxes, creating prototype drawings, menu customization, Visual Lisp functions, VBA, GT&D (ASME Y14.5), plotting, web design basics, adding CAD drawings to your web site, hardware configuration plus/mins, 3D Studio Max, misc. 3rd party software reviews, etc. Show and tell of other people’s drawings like you talked about. 3-D Modeling and rendering for architecture/interior design based fields.

Any other comments?
Some commented that they were most interested in programming topics. A couple said they were interested in web design basics and then adding CAD drawings to your web site. Several were also interested in 3rd party software reviews

More time for questions, problems, discussion from the audience.

I would like to hear what some of the others drawing standards are.

Open the invitations to the local colleges.

I would like to see this be more of a users group with group discussion instead of a dealer presentation.

More handouts

I also like someone beside Dennis to answer questions.

Wouldn't mind seeing a little more "structure". Maybe do a short survey a couple of days in advance to get a feel for issues needing/wanting to be discussed and covered. Doesn't mean we have to stick to it.

Any comments or suggestions for the DRAW web site?
I like the review pages from the meetings and the links when we talk about stuff on the web. I would like more tips and tricks on there.