How to set up a work PTC Users Group

[taldrich]

Hi I am trying to setup a users group at my current job. Does anyone have any experience at there current or previous position that could help me get started with ideas on how to set up a users group?

How often do you meet and for how long?

What content works well?

etc..

Any help would be appreciated.

[mlocascio]

Once a week would be good. But it has to be worth taking time out of the group’s week. Don’t make it like the user’s group I was involved in that had no overall benefit.



Make sure that there is an agenda. Make sure that this is not just a gripe session.



Michael P. Locascio

[pstephens]

They are surfaces that Frame layout have created, areas that need to kept clear of.

In Creo, they are transparent, I’m not sure how to make them show as transparent in Creo View.

[pstephens]

Sorry,

Answered the wrong email.

Sorry for any confusion.

[amansfield]

Todd:

We used to have regular Friday morning user group meetings when we first started to use Pro/Engineer "back in the old days", but they tended to be led by our reseller's application engineers, who'd visit frequently (remember those days :-)).

When we started having to do it ourselves it was hard to sustain, particularly as our users spread to other facilities, so it dropped off and we relied on word of mouth and the occasional demo or two from PTC or a VAR to keep the group informed.

Today we have occasional meetings where we tend to do tips and tricks, or demonstrate some new or changes to modeling practices. We always have a webcast for all users when we upgrade to a new version of either Windchill or Creo to go over the important changes.

In order to do this however, someone has to pick up the ball and run with it. It is difficult and time consuming to demo stuff in a manner that gets your point across and it takes a lot of preparation. If you are lucky enough to have a small number of users who are prepared to do that, then you're in good shape: you can keep to a fairly regular schedule. If it's just one of you it's harder to keep to regularly scheduledmeetings.

Ifyou get good interest and engagement from your peers then you (and your bosses) will see the value in it. We've had some really good sessions and keen interest as everyone wants either to learn new things or to make sure that they are keeping up with their peers.

Having said that, it's amazing how different people are in the way they approach 3D modeling: some people are still using techniques from the 90's while others explore the user interface and try new things out. These meetings are good opportunities for the users to compare notes and you can get some really good ideas from them.

An important topic area to cover is company modeling and drafting standards, and these meetings are a great opportunity to keep everyone abreast of changes / improvements to these areas.

Good Luck!

Andrew Mansfield

KI, Green Bay, WI

In Reply to Todd Aldrich:

Hi I am trying to setup a users group at my current job. Does anyone have any experience at there current or previous position that could help me get started with ideas on how to set up a users group?

How often do you meet and for how long?

What content works well?

etc..

Any help would be appreciated.

[MikeLockwood]

Answering Todd Aldrich…



About 15 years ago I started a monthly user meeting - lunch and learn. Initially focused just on Pro/E but evolved.

Over time several others kept it going (lots of ongoing effort), especially Leo copied here. Over 10+ years we had at least 150 of these meetings, usually with about 50-60 users for 90 minutes.



In general, it was a highly valuable thing for both users and the company. Some thoughts that you might be able to make use of:



* Food definitely helps. For years we were able to have budget line item for this; later it was bring your own.



* We sometimes but not very often had vendor presenters (PTC and others). Mostly in-house users, admin's, coordinators, people who participate in various processes (e.g. change management, assembly instructions) all are possible good presenters.



* Over time having a routine place / forum for making brief informal presentations become something that people planned for, and many were able to put in their annual objectives and performance reviews. A great many very talented, knowledgeable people never ever get a chance to talk in front of a group. Great things can happen when you arrange for it in a "safe" environment. Important to have users support each other especially for live demo's (which we highly encouraged rather than reading PowerPoints).



* Many times we simply had users demonstrate live how they modeled / documented various designs, stepping thru regeneration and/or illustrating techniques for drawing repeat regions, etc., etc. on already-finished designs. Alternatively, good demo / discussion on what people were currently wrestling with live - e.g. how to approach multi-level skeletons, overloaded assemblies w/simplified rep's, breaking apart complex family tables, etc. Sometimes these meetings became a group workshop weighing the pros and cons of the various approaches, and a decision was made right there.



* It's really great to reinforce the value of standards in various ways. A very simple but highly effective thing that we did as part of other things hundreds of times was to simply show / blank various layers in assemblies, with the expectation that all component and subassy layers would follow if created using standard start parts. Any item that didn't follow was quickly isolated. Any changes to standards such as start parts, drawing templates and formats, etc. was always discussed / demo'd and debated in these sessions.



In short, yes, lots of work but in general very much worth it.

[EricH]

We try to meet monthly and have an agenda developedby submitting ideas to present.Everyonein the group is expectedpresent at least once during the year.Each meetingtakes 1-2 hours depending on the topic. Topics include:

- Model/Assembly reviews by individuals to show techniques, concepts (Top Down, Master Model)Best Practices.

- Creo Tips and Tricks presented by individuals (specific tools:rounds, draft, blend, surfacing, workflow, PDM etc.)

- Reviewing items found online (tutorials, demonstrations etc.)

-Software Issues: Model problems (failed features, surfacing, etc)Software installation, 3rd party software integration.

After the presentations conclude there is usually a brief discussion and more often than not, someone has had a similar experience and offers a suggestion or it's put on the next agenda for further review.

Overall it has been a good experience with our team and improves communication. Good luck, let us know how it goes.

Eric