To facilitate interaction with the PTC development team, the Global Technical Committees will meet at PTC Headquarters in Needham, Massachusetts each year in January. In the meantime, the continent-based Technical Committees—located in Europe, North America, and Japan—will continue to meet in May, June and July, respectively.

Efforts are under way to increase contact and knowledge exchange across the continent-based Technical Committees. For example, the Japanese and North American Data Management Committees are collaborating on a white paper discussing how to know when a model change affects form, fit or function. The European Data Management Committee is also working with its North American counterpart to develop a list of the top ten issues related to data management tools. This list will be presented to the PTC product managers in an effort to drive software changes that will truly benefit everyone.

Changing of the Guard

With completion of this reorganization, Evan Caille of HP is now assuming the responsibilities of Director of Technical Committees and I will take on other duties on the PTC/USER Board. I have very much enjoyed working with the Technical Committees over the past five years. I am truly grateful to each and every member for his or her part in making this process successful. Many of you who have heard me speak at the PTC/USER conferences are aware of what the committees have done to improve the PTC suite of software. Many of you may not be aware, however, of the “napkin discussion” over dinner that became the hole table tool, or the Drafting Committee presentation that became the drawing templates. These are just two examples of our many successes.

I am sure that many of you could help us in our quest to improve the tools we are using. If you would like to participate in this important process, please contact Evan Caille at evan@ptcuser.org, or the TC chair in your area of interest.