To celebrate hitting 4 million members, this week we are spotlighting the work of GrabCAD Community member Trinityscsp, who joined in 2011 and is currently the most followed member of GrabCAD and one of its highest rated engineers.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

My name is Juarez Felipe Jr. I am a Mechanical Engineer, with a PhD in Machining Processes, from the University of São Paulo in Brazil. I started a company with some friends from school in 1995, first working with Industrial Automation, but now we work with Residential Automation only.

Trinityscsp joined GrabCAD in 2011 and is now the most followed member of the Community.

I was also a teacher from 1999 to 2004, when I started working with 3D modeling, just for educational purposes, and later as a hobby. A few years ago I started using it for work too, so we acquired a SOLIDWORKS license. Now all of our products are developed using SOLIDWORKS. I started using GrabCAD to download models to use in my projects and also to study, as I never took any classes that taught me how to do any of this stuff.

How has being a member of GrabCAD and sharing your work with other members helped your career?

I started using GrabCAD just to download some models. My intention at first was to use them in my own projects, but soon I started downloading models to study them and learn how they were made. This helped me a lot to understand SOLIDWORKS features. I still do that when I see a model and notice there are features I don’t know how to use. Later, I felt confident enough to start using SOLIDWORKS professionally, too. That was a big change for my company, because we didn’t use 3D until then. GrabCAD and Youtube have been my teachers.

Why did you pick GrabCAD over some of the other CAD sharing websites out there?

I used other sites too, but GrabCAD had the advantage of being a community, so I was able to ask questions, receive comments and suggestions on my models, and do the same for other users. That made the difference to me. I have also made some good friends here over the years.

The Community has grown and changed a lot since the early days.  What have been some of your favorite upgrades to GrabCAD while you’ve been a member?

The one update I liked the most was the “upload page” because it is now much easier to publish a model and set the renderings. I can also choose what to show or hide.

I also liked when it started showing 3D models as renderings. GrabCAD was full of models without renderings. I had made renderings for many models before that upgrade.

What do you hope to see more of in the Community?

I like the Challenges. It’s interesting to see how different people solve the same challenge. I would like to see more of that, maybe simpler, with shorter times and questions about common issues.

What do you hope to accomplish when you post your models on GrabCAD?

I learn a lot making those models. I am always looking for new ideas. Some models are complex, take lots of time, others are very simple and made quickly. To me, what matters is if I like the original idea. After publishing, I get feedback, so I know if others thought my work was good or not. I like that, even when it’s negative, because it stimulates me to improve and create more elaborate models based on the feedback I receive. I hope other users can learn from me the same way I have learned so much from them on GrabCAD.

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