We’re excited to welcome Troy Petrowicz to the team as an NX Applications Engineer!
With years of experience, he has a background in engineering and manufacturing. His experience includes manufacturing process optimization, CAD/CAM programming, and systems configuration to create an efficient backend environment.
Troy has worked across the naval shipbuilding and aerospace industries.
Q: What made you want to join the Applied team?
A: I came across Applied CAx while searching online. It stood out to me because I wanted to get back into an application engineer role with NX, and I saw that the company was growing. I also wanted to get involved more with managed environments and some deployment automation, which I can do at Applied CAx.
Q: What are your areas of expertise?
A: CNC machining, macro programming, NX CAD/CAM, NX environment setup and customization, post builder, and post configurator development.
Q: What’s your background or education?
A: I did my machinist apprenticeship through The Apprentice School at Newport News Shipbuilding, completing with my Journeyman’s card. Following that, I have completed multiple courses in post-processor and machine simulation development.
Q: How did you get started in your field?
A: After getting into programming from the machinist trade, I became really interested in post-processor development. After going down that path and learning how customizable Siemens products were, I wanted to continue learning and helping manufacturing teams get the most out of the products. I’m lucky enough to do this directly with companies or supported by a Siemens VAR.
Q: Where are you based?
A: Newport News, Virginia.
Q: What’s your favorite way to start the day?
A: A cup of coffee on my porch with my family.
Q: What’s a favorite quote or motto you live by?
A: “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”
Q: What’s something new you’ve learned recently—work-related or not?
A: I recently had a cracked water line between my house and the meter. Had to very quickly buy tools and learn about pex A vs B piping and fittings. After three trips to the hardware store, patience was thin, but the leak was resolved.
Q: What’s a professional achievement you’re proud of?
A: Development of a centralized post configurator environment using one post to stack .tcl, .def, and .cdl files for different machine and controller requirements without the need to recreate a new post from scratch.