Our company has been using the "PatternSmith" software since 1999 to manufacture aircraft components made from textiles. Its use has improved our productivity 10 fold at least. One operator at our company states, "The software has made my work easy by making the cutting machine so easy to use. It performs so many functions previously performed manually using a measuring scale, marking pen, and scissors. It marks the stitch lines on the fabric used to sew the webbing to the fabric on large and small nets. It also marks small holes on fabric for the laser guided snap installer to aim at and cuts large holes in fabric 3" to 4" in diameter. It can even cut 12 foot long shapes in a very short time. I would recommend it to any company using scissors to repeatedly cut fabric."

The software has continuously improved in the last 16 years making the cutting table perform its function even better. The only real concern we have is the vacuum pump is too noisy.

Overall been a bit frustrated. I wish the software was more geared to apparel or could exchange with outside files.

It’s pretty comprehensive and the fact that you guys continue to update.

It’s a closed system. Does not work well with other files. I also wish you guys had a thorough training manual or video tutorials.

Ability to use the cutting table and export as .dxf files.

It is inexpensive overall and performs well with the cutting table we purchased. Very simplistic, however, could be enhanced simply by creating larger dialogue windows (currently looks like Windows 98) to allow for ease of use. Simple things need to be updated to today's standards in software GUI.

It is dated and updates are lacking and uncoordinated. Should follow more common tool selections coming from Solidworks or Illustrator or similar programs. Overall, it is a basic program that has a lot of functionality issues that do not seem to get addressed in a timely fashion.

clean look not to much "useless" menus. the new ad-ons and tweaks help out making this software more user friendly.

the thing i like the least is that if i make some patterns and copy them in another file and want to edit i have to edit everywhere the copy is.. i am used to software that is parametric and i think that this would be a great feature to add to your software.

Time saver!!

Clean, easy to read. Overall just used to it and have gotten over the cons by this time. The cons are really what are separating the pros at this moment.

I wish I would be able to create a way where I dont have to always draw out the new patterns that are similar to other ones.

Not much. It drives the cutting table so we have to use it. We would never choose to use it.

It drives my CBC cutting table, and the company that installed the table helped immensely with training on the software during installation.

Lack of shortcuts. Lack of a command line. Too much reliance on button toolbars in general. No common line cutting, and additional charges for nesting functionality.

I am able to get daily desired information about patterns to our manufacturers and some customers. The basic information I need is very easy to acquire.

Pretty easy to get used to. I was able to self teach myself half of the functions of the software. I use it on a daily basis and can easily get the information I need without much effort.

Not as many options as other software. I use a Lectra Software which has a lot more flexibility and can use a wider range of pattern files, and is much more compatible with the companies we work with.

great program

Range of capabilities - seems program can do just about everything we need....

Email me for suggestions if you really want to know - i need to tell you what version we're running, too - and i can send you videos of the many little things i run into

I was surprised and very pleased in how quickly and easily the company was able to make the change to a cad based design system. The savings paid for the software and cutting tables quickly and repeatedly over the years. I could not imagine attempting to operate a business without it.

Ease in which hemming dimensions could be added to a designed pattern, along with the ability to print instructions to the fabricator within the hemming space.

An inexperienced designer could shut down the program unexpectedly with multiple quick clicks on select menu items in the early versions. Data would be lost up to the last time the file was saved. We started using the program in the late 1990’s

Has taken our product to new levels.

PatternSmith software does all the work for you. All you really have to do is learn what the tools are and what they do. I use it to figure out all kinds of lengths, angles and designs for work and personal projects.

It would be nice if the plotter would mark away from the center of the table. Sometimes the pen catches the edge and lifts the material causing a loss in suction and sometimes breaking the pen. It can also cause the machine to lose alignment.

This software is very user friendly and easy to use. If your job is to draw and create 2D drawings it works awesome.

Sometimes the program gets temperamental and will shut down and close randomly as well as leaving some of the features and tools not working until your computer is rebooted. Very frustrating if you have been working on a design for an hour and it decides to shut down on you.

Completed pat files are easy to implement to cutting table. Nesting feature is great.

We are using AutoCad as the editing software as this allow better editing options and overall controllability of the patterns. Patternsmith is primarily used as a medium to operate the cutting table. There is also an issue with printing letters on the patterns. Patternsmith loses to origin of the words during the dxf to pat conversion. Manual placement through Patternsmith is not accurate. Unable to fully utilize Patternsmith unless its connected to the cutting table. Because of this, its options are never used.

I like that this software is easy to use. You don't need to know a lot about computers or software to effectively use it. - At least for us. I suppose we don't use all of it's capabilities, but the functions we do use are easy to grasp and easy to teach.

This software has locked up before, during production hours, negatively impacting productivity for that day. It is easy to fix, but it cost the time it took to get a key.

There are a few things I like about this software, It is very user friendly for the most part and the support is amazing

I would think the only thing that I'm not happy with is the lack of ease of ability to convert all of the pattern pieces with only one adjustment

Workflow optimization.

The software is pretty easy to pick up and learn to use. It is powerful enough to allow us to design all of our products in and light enough to allow a very quick workflow.

The software is prone to a few bugs, mostly consisting of the program crashing without warning. A few other bugs such as line connector not always working and objects overlapping when nesting with a box perimeter.

We have largely seen no benefit and frustrated the users who were accustomed to the earlier software

We reluctantly use this product only because the earlier Plotter Pilot has become unsupported

The downtime due to the software losing it's registration/unlock info at inopportune times

The nesting saves us so much on material waste reduction.

The ability to store all of our ply patterns in one place makes it very easy to use for our ply cutting staff. It also nest the ply's with very little waste.

It does take some time to learn all the features that the software has to offer. But with some training it is easy enough to use.

Our production is at least doubled since we started using it.

The program is very easy to use. It is a great program for beginner users and very easy to train.

The thing I like least about this software is the crashes if there is an "excessive" number of mouse clicks in a row.

It has been an effective design tool along with providing efficient use of materials

Fully Integrated to our Fabric cutting system

Struggling to think of cons with so many benefits attached to the software

The software is very simple to use and packed with automated features to make pattern cutting easy. Highly recommended

Originally it was the right click function and different way of doing things, now its second nature.

PatternSmith 8.2 so way easier to use than the old version. Easy to create or import patterns.

Still a little buggy and crashes sometimes but recovers well without any loss of data.

We use it daily. Overall it works well. We do run into glitches that we feel shouldn't happen, but PatternSmith seems open to working on them.

This is user friendly, offers many options.

Unfortunately there are random glitches. The base computer requirements have changed since the release.

Helps us nest efficiently, we are able to try different iterations quickly and easily, our hands are less tired from using scissors!

Simple, easy to use interface. Nesting is pretty easy. I like using the trace feature to import patterns via photos.

It has been crashing more frequently on me lately. It doesn't tell me exactly why it crashes, but seems to happen when I am working with patterns that have a lot of points or bezier curves.

Great Software pattern smith has allowed us to take a flattened pattern and make all the finishing touches, way less complicated than trying to do all of that in a cad program. This has been a game changer in our companies entry into automating our Cutting.

Very Easy to Learn, and user friendly, the software support is very prompt and helpful

In using the software your find the occasional bug, and it seems to run a little slow at times

The best features I use are the different offsets and enjoy the ease of having keyboard shortcuts for just about everything I use the program for really increases my productivity.

The program does like to crash. It could use a marquee selection as well as more colors for reference to keep things straight although the addition of layers might solve this.