DriveWorks Drivers September Meeting Round Up
DriveWorks Drivers connects DriveWorks Users from around the world to share technical know-how and practical experience informally with each other, with guest speakers sharing experiences and encouraging questions and dialogue about the technology.
September 8th DriveWorks Drivers Meetings
On Thursday, September 8th we hosted the 3rd DriveWorks Drivers meeting of the year.
During the meetings, Heather and Bridie provided updates on the technical resources available including webinars and events scheduled for the coming months, as well as Tech Tips developed by our Technical Team to demonstrate specific DriveWorks functionality.
3pm (BST)
9pm (BST)
Welcoming a New Member of the DriveWorks Team
As we kicked off our meeting, Bridie introduced Paul Gimbel as the newest member of the DriveWorks Team. Paul joins our team in the role of DriveWorks Sherpa – and as many know he is no stranger to DriveWorks as he has been very active in the DriveWorks community over the course of his career.
Paul brings with him a wealth of industry experience and years of accumulated technical knowledge and insight. Based in the USA, Paul will also work with our team to provide technical insight for our North American resellers and users.
He’s excited to focus his time on providing resellers, partners, and customers with the tools they need to be successful.
Paul spoke with the group about his role and how he is hoping to take the knowledge and skills that he has built over the years and share them with the community.
Guest Presentations
Guest presentations are a big part of all DriveWorks Drivers meetings.
We know how important it is for our users to connect and share ideas, tips and tricks with each other.
Tips & Tricks Session
Joel Hanneman, TPM, Inc.
In the 3pm meeting, we welcomed Joel Hanneman, from DriveWorks reseller TPM, Inc based in the south-eastern United States. Joel provided us with an insightful Tips and Tricks presentation using a slide deck that he had built as a DriveWorks project.
Joel covered a wide variety of techniques for users of all levels. Joel provided tips and examples of leveraging the Rules Builder, showed a creative application of form controls for rules development and troubleshooting, and explained some basic and advanced tips for getting the best out of the DriveWorks help.
As an active member of the DriveWorks community who is frequently joining DriveWorks events, it was great to have Joel presenting at the DriveWorks Drivers meeting.
Significant Time Reductions with DriveWorks Solo
Chris Setzler, Detroit Stoker
In the 9pm meeting, we welcomed Chris Setzler, Mechanical Designer at Detroit Stoker.
Chris shared with us how they have used DriveWorks to automate their designs and drawings. Detroit Stoker was founded on automation in 1898, they automated equipment in order to provide a safer environment for their workers (known as Stokers).
Chris shared that he first discovered DriveWorksXpress while attending Monroe County Community College. As Detroit Stoker was investigating ways to automate their designs, he was given the task of creating a project in DriveWorksXpress as management wanted to know the benefits and how much time can be saved with this tool. After successfully creating a project, they continued to work with DriveWorksXpress.
They went on to purchase DriveWorks Solo and have reduced the amount of time it takes to create complex designs and drawings. While the custom work required on each job is different, they are able to automate most of the work and then make final changes – still with a significant time reduction.
They are hoping as they expand on their use of DriveWorks with other projects that they will explore advanced features such as 3D Preview and adding capabilities for their customers and vendors to configure their own products and make sales easier.
Discussion on Future Topics
DriveWorks Drivers meetings are a great way to engage in a discussion with users from across the DriveWorks Community to hear more about what they are doing with DriveWorks software.
The goal of DriveWorks Drivers has always been to help connect DriveWorks users from around the world and to have them drive the meeting. Getting feedback from our users on what they’d like to hear is key to achieving this goal.
If you have an idea for a future DriveWorks Drivers meeting, let us know.
Next DriveWorks Drivers Meeting
The next DriveWorks Drivers meeting will be on Thursday, 8th December at 3pm and 9pm GMT – hope to see you there!
This will be the 2nd anniversary of DriveWorks Drivers. We will host a few special guests from the DriveWorks team and of course have some great technical content planned.
 Keep an eye on our events page to read more about this meeting and to sign up.
