HEAT Instructors Participate in Newly Formed North Texas Regional Users Group

The Newly formed CATIA Operators Exchange of North Texas had its first full day of presentations and information exchange, January 25, 2002 at Tarrent County College. Opening the day was Rod Windsor from Vought Aircraft Industries, who has put countless hours into forming the North Texas RUG. Thank you Rod! The day was jammed packed with incredible presentations and support from IBM, Dassault, DELMIA and Tarrent County College.

A kick-off meeting for the RUG was held in October 2001 at Vought Aircraft Industries. During the kick off meeting, which was attended by 60 plus people, who represented more than 25 companies, a presentation was requested of many attendees, in order to help determine the direction and future focus of the COE-NT RUG. The HEAT Instructors banned together to answer what versions they use, what platform CATIA is being run on, and what digital models are being generated. The HEAT instructors were from three-area colleges: Tarrent County College represented by Jeff Maestas; Texas Christian University represented by Dennis Jettun; and Weatherford College, represented by Cindy Hitt. The experience was a great teaming effort with every one becoming more aware of the Fort Worth /Dallas area resources for CATIA education. The HEAT Instructors would like to Thank Buz Nowicki, CATIA Higher Education and Training Program Manager for his continuous support of our educational classroom programs. The presentations can be viewed on the CATIA Operators Exchange of North Texas RUG Web site www.vought.com/ntcoe/.

The RUG is an incredible source of information and education. The North Texas area is very fortunate to have this newly formed resource available for quarterly meetings. It is especially helpful for academic institutions that usually are on limited training budgets. The ENOVIA LCA presentation by Alex Sanchez and Pat Peterson included a live demonstration that had the audience totally engrossed. Steve Loveland of Bell Helicopter Textron, Mike Potter of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, and Greg Premetz of Vought Aircraft Industries, Inc. discussed V4 to V5 interoperability issues. Clark Pittman of DELMIA had a very interesting overview of his manufacturing engineering solutions. The afternoon ended with Johnny Hicks presenting Knowledgeware and Automation. Lee Encapera and Tom Toomey also authored the presentation. Where else could you have all of this knowledge and information available for you to digest with out getting on a flight?