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On the 28th of November the official application for registry of a Sweden’s first User Group for SolidWorks users was filed. The acronym SWUGS is a direct short for SolidWorks User Group of Sweden. Here Ola Linde reports why he chose to register a User group in Sweden.
Why is there a need for a Swedish User Group?
Today SolidWorks is sold by a number of resellers that also are responsible for after sales support, traing etc. But their support is mainly connected to a valid license and a subscription. With an independent user group we invite everyone to participate.
What does the resellers say about an independent user group?
Two out of three resellers (third has not yet replied), SolidWorks Sweden as well as SWUGN have shown very positive respons. We have even been in contact with our neighbour user groups in Scandinavia to discuss some kind of cooperation. So far no one has told us not to start.
Why did you start a user group in Sweden?
Personally I look forward to meet fellow users of SolidWorks and to discuss how they handle different topics. Maybe arrange field trips to companies, universities etc to see how they use the different parts of the software, ie. surface, weldments, standard parts, large assemblies. What is their experience of SolidWorks, proos and cons.
Who can become a member of SWUGS?
Everyone that has an interest for SolidWorks and its partner software. We hope to attract everyone, from students and the ”between-2-jobs” as well as daily SolidWorks users. You don’t need a license nor a valid subscription to become a member. The only exception is for persons that only have an interest based on competing products.
What’s the member fee?
It is free of charge to become a member. Our goal is that all meetings as well will be free, but maybe you need to pay for some food and beverage. Trips to companies will be totally free of charge.
What benefit would a company gain by hosting a meeting?
It is important to remember that the company invites a group of specialist that doesn’t charge on running account. The idea is to have an exchange in both directions, the company may have problems with some models or way of working and the SWUGS members can ask how the company solved certain tasks. Both parties chose if and how they want to answer, we don’t want to become part of any espionage.
What happens now?
The file for registration has been sent to SWUGN. If you read this then you have found our blog where we will keep you informed about the progress. Then it will take some time before we have an organization that can handle member registry, homepage etc. We suggest that you return once and a while to check for the latest progress report. One way is to take use of the RSS feeds for this blog.
Finally we would like to welcome you as a member to SWUGS and maybe we will meet during a user group meeting soon.
RSS SWUGS blog