Developing engineering students whose ability to work and make a real contribution to the development of technology can be done not only after they have graduated from college but also when they are still in college. One of the strategies is by implementing project-based learning with the project based on the potential of the student's region. This study aims to reveal students' perceptions of learning and soft skills acquisition toward the implementation of the strategy to answer whether the project is effective to implement. This study was conducted on fifty-one Indonesian college students who took Mechanical Drawing course. It belongs to a one-shot case study with mixed-method approach. The result shows that the project based on the potential of the student's region is effective to raise their perception of motivation, interest, real-world, very beneficial, learning more lecture and enjoyable so that they learn more actively and provide more time to study. It also develops students' soft skills, including teamwork, project management, communication, and interpersonal skills. The results may have pedagogical implications in improving learning quality in Mechanical Drawing course by enriching project references used in implementing project-based learning. Furthermore, the project given can be a solution in developing the potential of the students' regions.