At SolidWorks World 2002 in Las Vegas last week, Pathtrace Systems, Inc. won the best partner case study of the event.

All partners were asked to submit a case study of a company using both SolidWorks design software in conjunction with their own softare. Pathtrace chose a story about Wagner Tool & Engineering, Inc. located in Norfolk, Nebraska who are supported locally by Camtech, a division of Manufacturing Technologies Group, Inc., Pathtrace's reseller in the midwest. Wagner Tool has successfully come through a truly fundamental change, transforming itself from a long-run, high-production CNC machining business to a contract manufacturer capable of taking on most anything in mechanical design, machining and assembly.

"The difficulty in these new markets is not tight tolerances and complicated configurations," said Steve Wagner, owner of Wagner Tool & Engineering, Inc. "We always had the machine tools and processes to handle those. The difficulty is the constant stream of new part introductions. And that's where SolidWorks and EdgeCAM software really helps us." EdgeCAM was installed early in 2000 - just in time for a surge in business that proved out both software packages' capabilities.

"On a typical part, SolidWorks and EdgeCAM saves me between an hour and two hours of programming time," said Scott Volk, manufacturing manager and lead CAM programmer. That's a huge savings since he can sometimes average two to three part programs a day in addition to shop management duties. "Out on the shop floor," he added, "it saves us another 15 minutes to two hours per part program." The more complex the job, the bigger the savings and complexity rises steadily with outsourcing. This means SolidWorks' and EdgeCAM's value keep increasing even as their investment are recovered.

Included with the honour of having the story named the best, Pathtrace also won space on the SolidWorks booth at NDES 02 in Chicago, IL March 18 - 21 and an IPAQ Compaq computer for the author of the story, Jack Thornton of Mindfeed Marcomme, Pathtrace's PR consultant.

For more information, contact:

Tracy Affleck
Pathtrace Systems, Inc.
Email Contact
www.edgecam.com

Jim Jackson
Camtech
Email Contact
www.mfgtech.com