Our History

1991: Word Gets Out

Having had a completely successful first meeting, word spread that NAAUG was the place to be for anything to do with AutoCAD. Job opportunities, networking with fellow users and direct contact with Autodesk programmers made the NAAUG 1992 annual general meeting impossible to miss. Held in conjunction with CAD Camp (Autodesk's premier AutoCAD dealer event of the year), John McQuary and his administration had a great deal of planning to do with Autodesk in preparing for twice the number of attendees from the 1990 meeting. The meeting went beautifully, and in addition to all the benefits attendees received the previous year, they also had direct access to third-party developers and dealers for the first time.

Because CAD Camp was held close to Autodesk headquarters, a large number of Autodesk employees could attend the event. i was amazed to find managerial support sessions taught by Autodesk's own Product Support manager Lou Goldklang, technical wish list sessions moderated by Product Managers and Programmers Brad Zehring and Duff Kirland, printing and plotting configuration sessions taught by Product Support Technicians David Loving and Crystal Moreno, programming in ADS taught by Tools and Technologies wizard Cliff Gauntlet...and if this wasn't thrill enough, NAAUG members from the previous year were able to teach their own courses on networking, systems and AutoCAD configuration, discipline-specific customization, programming and techniques. The AutoCAD networking session was standing room only.

It was an incredible meeting, and attendees were also thrilled by presentations created by the new Autodesk Multimedia product 3D Studio. This meeting offered the first fully organized and attended Wish List session (although not very structured, the 1991 meeting had a Wish List session with invaluable feedback that Autodesk used) with three microphones set up in the main hall and a session that lasted for an amazing two hours! What followed were discussions of future AutoCAD features and presentations by several large companies on their implementation of CAD standards and third-party software evaluations. Everyone was entranced again and the whole event was greatly enhanced by the participation of third party developers and dealers nationwide.

The new officers elected for the next year were:

President: Jay Reinhardt / Bechtel Corp.
President-Elect: Phil Krieker / Looking Glass Microproducts
Secretary: Tom Conti / Walt Disney Imagineering
Treasurer: Craig Allen / Chevron Information Technology Co.
LUG Representative: David Minkin / Micro/CADD Consulting
AEC SIG Chair: Larry Rocha / Wimberley Allison Tong & Goo Architects
Mechanical SIG Chair: Paul Jackson / Honeywell, Inc.
GIS SIG Chair: Roderick S. Buehler / Utah Power
Senior Autodesk Rep: John Forbes / Autodesk
Manager of User Group Services: Stacey Nichols / Autodesk