A few people were lamenting the loss of the old forum…Thought I’d give them a place to vent, reminisce, plan a farewell party, whatever…
I don’t know where to start. That forum, and the people, meant more to me than I realized until recently.
Part of me is sad, and part is angry. I’m not sure which one is winning.
I would like to thank all the people over there who helped me over the last 12 years. I’ve learned a tremendous amount; some of it directly, and others just from experimenting while trying to help someone else.
For every door that closes on us, a window of opportunity opens up.
While I share the sadness and frustration that you guys speak of, I also feel hopeful. This forum might not be the original, but I believe that we can recreate what there was over there, and have it be better then it was. Let’s not forget that the reason that the SolidWorks Forums were such a success is because of every single person that took part inside that community.
Let’s not regret this closed door but embrace the window of opportunity it brings. If we grieve over it for too long, we might miss these opportunities.
Thanks again matt for giving us a refuge to come to and share our knowledge without being ‘labeled’ DS property.
Yes, I have mixed emotions, but like AlexLachance I think that this door opened, and Glenn Schroeder kicked me through it. Seriously, I’ve been a part of on-line chatter about SolidWorks since 1997. I’ve seen a few of these transitions, and it’s always hard at first, but gets easier over time. I think there are some people who we might leave behind, but we will probably also gain some new friends.
We have some people who have signed up anonymously, but I’m still holding out for guys like Paul Salvador, who has a history at least as long as mine with all of this stuff. I realize I was part of the main crew of forum people before a lot of the current crowd were part of it, but guys like jcapriotti have been around for a while too. I should never mention names because I inevitably leave out guys like mbiasotti or Alin or other big name players.
Anyway, so long to the old, and in with the new. Hopefully this place will allow us to be less parochial and more open minded about software we use to get our jobs done. I hope we can attract the “do my homework for me” crowd, because like the cell phone holder guy, they are at least a lot of fun. And I never feel as engaged as when I’m helping people solve problems. I guess that’s why we all got into engineering or design.
Out with the old and in with the new.
I agree with the posts above. This is definitely going to be a little different. But, I believe it’s an opportunity to have an even better forum. As mentioned above, the biggest thing about the old forum is the people. And this place already has a good number of them here.
And the ones that aren’t here yet, may participate in the Swamp for a while, but it’s not a forum. It’s more like the SW subreddit and if they liked that format they’d be over there. So, matt you’ve built it, and they will come here.
Hey, and this forum is even better in some ways! Look we’ve got the sarcasm tag! I see a float and align one too, that’s new!
Having kept an eye on the forum member count, it seems the influx of member has restarted, maybe not to the same scale as when the forum launched, but I’m hoping it continues like this for a few days or weeks. We were at 194 members on tuesday and now we’re at 210.
I am going to be members of this forum and the new SolidWorks forum. Then decide later which one is better.
Steven, you forgot the sarcasm tag. 
That’s a reasonable approach. Try to make sure you familiarize yourself with all of the options here, like the styles/themes, the upload/download library, the ability to get the admin guy to add stuff… and most of all, the sarcasm tag. I think that is exclusive to the CADForum.
Anyway, thanks for registering. Every person makes a difference.
I’ll gather my feelings after the fact. I’m still packing.
It is the people that haven’t been around for a month or more that I will truly miss. There’s plenty of them.
It’ll be a struggle on that side, let me tell ya
I said a while ago that I think there is a place for both. This one will be the “Workhorse” where people can come, discuss issues, problems and get answers. The other one will be more of an extension of your VAR. When something pops up here that “Ain’t Right” or if someone comes up with an enhancement idea it can get more visibility over there.
I have used it off and on for more than 15 years. A great source for information & knowledge. I’ve always been impressed that people respond so quickly and with great feedback.
And it’s done…
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Confirmed. It’s gone.
In memorial…a departing shot. 
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In light of that. Alin and Rob, one of the last posts over at the old thread was Rob bringing up what I inferred to be a suggestion for a “Design for Change” super model mania SWPUC. Alin, I know those darn things take a lot of your time and you just finished one, but can you imagine the benefit?
With the change in venue, it may be hard to figure out what the rewards are and how we (and by we, I mean you, Alin, with the help of us) lay that out. Personally, I think this forum is the better location for something like that because of this being an actual forum and the platform just doesn’t seem suited to that type of thing. But, Alin, this is your baby and it’s definitely your decision.
matt the SWPUC were great over at the old forum. This may be a whole other thread with the can of worms I’m opening here, but do you (or anyone else) know how we can make that easy here or maybe even better than it was on the old forum? I’ve gained so much from some of them, I’m willing to donate money. Maybe we can set up a Zelle or Paypal for them and people can contribute to a pot? Obviously, if we do something like this both Alin and Matt get a cut…Or maybe we leave that for later and advertising? I’m sure people like 3DConnexion would be interested in advertising in a space where the best of the best are posting.
well i got a bunch of captures into my one note of stuff i wanted to save, what a loss of good information. 
Thanks to all that contributed over there you are awesome , hope to see you here!
Yup. I had Chrome to open with four tabs active; my Gmail, Pandora, the SW FAQ, and the SW Questions. Now it’s just three. I dropped the two dead ones and added https://www.cadforum.net/search.php?search_id=newposts&sid=bc17076d41cbec81239a7987af17b869
Annnnnddd just like that I found the answer I was looking for this morning! THANK YOU, GLENN! 
I was poking around, doing my homework (as too many folks don’t do) and found your post. I was looking for the best ways to search within this forum. The new 3DSwamp is an absolute abomination for finding things. I knew it would be much easier in this forum, but still wanted to learn how to expedite my searches. Glenn, at the link you posted: https://www.cadforum.net/search.php?search_id=newposts&sid=bc17076d41cbec81239a7987af17b869 I saw this:
Now https://www.cadforum.net/search.php is one of my primary CAD Forum bookmarks. I was looking for a definitive guide on how to search with the specificity I wanted and this is it:
It just goes to show how THIS forum is already a great asset. ><