Chicago SolidWorks User Group

>>>> 1998 – 2025 <<<<

27 Years of Sharing Knowledge and Fellowship

Dear CSUG member,

We are planning a CSUG meeting for Thursday, October 16, 2025, from 5pm to 8:30pm at the DES PLAINES Campus of Oakton College, in ROOM 2808. The address is 1600 E. Golf Rd., Des Plaines, Illinois 60016.  (See map at end of notice or Google the address for a map.)

****NOTE: This meeting is on the second floor.****

We will start with a short business meeting followed by the presentation.

 AGENDA:

5:00-5:30PM Sign-in and networking.

5:30PM Food served.  Pizza & soft drinks.

5:30-6:30PM Short business meeting during pizza time.

6:30-8:00PM Presentation – TJ Schnell (DiMonte Group, Inc.)

8:00-8:30PM Q&A, Door Prize Drawing.

8:30PM Meeting adjourned.

Short Business Meeting:

Introduce the group to BEVY, the new platform for user group communication https://community.swugn.org/. (Meetup for our group is obsolete.)

Let the group know about SLUGME 10 coming up on Nov. 6, 2025.

Let the group know about the West Michigan Summit coming up in December 2025.

Let the group know that registration is open for 3DXWorld 2026.

Remind the group of the SWUGN LinkedIn group https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13036085/

Presentation: 

“From Clay to CAD: Turning a clay mockup into a functional video game controller.”

The Nintendo 64’s three-handled controller is iconic, but also awkward. TJ Schnell thought he could do better. In this session, he’ll share how he sculpted a new two-handled design in clay, scanned it into the digital mesh, and using SolidWorks, engineered it into a 3D-printed controller you can actually play. It’s a mix of hands-on craft, SolidWorks modeling techniques, and a little bit of gamer wish-fulfillment.    

TJ Schnell | Sr. Industrial Designer | DiMonte Group, Inc.

TJ will be presenting this at 3D Experience World 2026 in Houston, TX this coming February. This gives TJ the opportunity to do a trial run in front of an audience and help him fine tune the presentation. At the end of the presentation we will take time for some feedback to help TJ polish this presentation to be one of best presentations at “World 2026”.

We will have the usual pizza and soft drinks for refreshments, along with a door prize drawing (if we have prizes to give away).

The meeting should adjourn around 8:30 pm.

No RSVP necessary.

We will base the headcount on the average from previous meetings.

Looking forward to seeing the familiar faces along with any new members.

Solidly Yours,

Denny Bahl

CSUG President