Gibbs and Associates, developer of GibbsCAM software for programming CNC machine tools and a Cimatron company, recently announced that it will participate at the SolidWorks World 2015 Conference with a presentation and booth demonstrations of GibbsCAM software’s optimization for machining parts designed in SolidWorks.

GibbsCAM is a SolidWorks Certified CAM Product that provides seamless integration with SolidWorks. Gibbs was selected to give a presentation called “Manufacturing Complex Solid Models with GibbsCAM,” to be delivered by Steve Aughinbaugh, a GibbsCAM applications engineer, on Monday, February 9, 2015 from 6:45pm-7:00pm. The presentation will highlight GibbsCAM’s integration with SolidWorks, and demonstrate the use of automation features of both products to read a complex part from SolidWorks and program it for machining with GibbsCAM. Mr. Aughinbaugh will demonstrate the ease of programming turning, milling, millturning and drilling operations on a multi-task machine, and finish with full simulation of the machining process. In addition to the presentation, GibbsCAM demonstrations will be available in Booth 525 of the Partner Pavilion. The conference runs from February 8-11, 2015 at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

Mr. Aughinbaugh’s presentation will be centered on GibbsCAM’s MTM and Machine Simulation for programming, simulating and verifying multi-task machining (MTM) operations in making parts designed in SolidWorks. He will demonstrate how GibbsCAM directly reads SolidWorks part models, preserving features and attributes, and use these to identify, organize and select features for machining. The use of a complex part – a cylindrical part with flat areas, pockets, holes and compound holes – for the presentation will enable Mr. Aughinbaugh to demonstrate the ease and speed of GibbsCAM’s CNC programming for various different operations required to machine parts. Use of a complex machine for programming and simulation will enable him to highlight GibbsCAM’s new underlying architecture, the Universal Kinematic Machine engine, which allows programming and simulating machine tools of any configuration, simple or complex. His presentation will finish with simulation of the entire machining process, including the machine tool, its moving components, tool blocks and cutting tools as they make the part.

Inherent to the presentation will be GibbsCAM’s optimization for SolidWorks, which includes the integration of GibbsCAM’s Hole Manager with SolidWorks’ Hole Wizard to identify, categorize, and machine simple and compound holes, and GibbsCAM’s Automatic Feature Recognition and Feature Manager, to read and preserve features from the SolidWorks Feature Tree to easily identify and select areas for machining. This integration, in combination with many other GibbsCAM automation features, greatly simplifies solids machining and provides huge time savings for the SolidWorks user. With a short learning curve, GibbsCAM’s unique user interface enables additional productivity from ease of use and speed of programming.

The combination of GibbsCAM 2015 and SolidWorks 2015 provides a complete CAD/CAM solution for most manufacturing environments. Whether parts have simple geometry needing only 2.5-axis milling or 2-axis turning, or complex geometry requiring use of 5-axis machining, MTM or Swiss-style turning centers, the SolidWorks-GibbsCAM combination accommodates and optimizes the machining process. GibbsCAM verifies the toolpaths with gouge detection and interference checking, dynamically and visually simulates them on virtual machine tools, and accurately post-processes them to generate optimal NC programs. GibbsCAM features help users eliminate scrap and reduce cycle times, while they maximize efficiency, safety and profits.

ThoughtBerry Technologies India Pvt Ltd, the powerhouse of Product Life-cycle Management solution venture in India has recently signed the Channel Partnership with Cimatron, India for Karnataka Territory. The company will be majorly responsible for sales & support of Cimatron products in the region.

Talking about the partnership Koushik Kumar, Founder & Director, ThoughtBerry Technologies India Pvt ltd says, “ThoughtBerrry’s Channel Partnership with Cimatron is very strategic and would be focusing on SMB Market revenue ranging from 100 crore to 500 crore companies. ThoughtBerry has a strong customer base for PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) in Karnataka, through which it will increase the existing customer base by 60-70% in the next 3-4 quarters for Cimatron.”

Cimatron develops and distributes CAD/CAM software for the manufacturing industry. With two major product lines, GibbsCAM and CimatronE, the company has been serving the growing Indian market. “Indian CAD/CAM Market has very strong opportunities & potential for SMB market. We have seen a rapid business growth in the last two quarters for CAD/CAM/PLM Industries and a majority of the customers from SMB market are showing great interest towards advance solutions in order to enhance their capabilities. This change will add greater values to the Channel Partners and Service Providers like us,” says Koushik.

Indian industry has slowly but finally has realised the potential of automated technologies. From manufacturing leaders to SMEs, everyone is looking to increase productivity while reducing the cycle time. Koushik opines, “Indian SMB market for CAD/CAM/CAE has changed drastically as compared to 2011. Now companies are focusing on, “Time to Market” strategy to be beat the competition. With this we see a great opportunity to support all our customers with Strategic Value Road Map to deliver their vision.”

ThoughtBerry is known to be a one-stop solution provider as it caters to various areas, from consulting to product sales, managed consulting to engineering services. Talking about their future plans, Koushik says, “Apart from revenue and head count expansion, ThoughtBerry plans to extend its geographical presence across South India, US and Europe. Structure-wise, the organisation has been divided into Engineering Services, Manages Consulting & Product Sales. The sales team is quite vital to ThoughtBerry’s growth and has added a stong customer base. ThoughtBerry is in the process of hiring more engineers to boost the sales & pre-sales strength. By next two years we are targeting to hire around 100 employees.”

Gibbs and Associates, developer of GibbsCAM® software for programming CNC machine tools and a Cimatron company, recently announced that they will introduce GibbsCAM UKM (Universal Kinematic Machine), the brand-new engine behind the upcoming release of GibbsCAM 2015, at IMTS 2014, September 8–13, 2014, at McCormick Place, Chicago, in Booth # E-3310. GibbsCAM UKM is a complete reengineering of the CAM engine and how it relates to machine definitions and machine tools, blurring the line between the definition of mills and lathes.

Bill Gibbs, CEO and President of Gibbs and Associates explains: “CAM systems were designed based on the way mills and lathes were originally created to move. Mill-turns and multi-task machines (MTM) started merging the two. GibbsCAM UKM was created from the ground up with no limitations. It can handle any number of axes in any direction, with multiple tools cutting simultaneously. With GibbsCAM UKM, users can program and accurately simulate virtually any machine today and even machines that haven’t been invented yet.”

A complete paradigm shift, the benefits of the GibbsCAM UKM engine extend throughout the entire product line, not just those areas relating to complex machines.  Dramatic improvements to rendering and Machine Simulation provide the most accurate simulation available, giving customers the confidence that what they see on the computer screen is what will happen at the machine. Machine simulation and post processors are built on the same kinematic model, optimizing the programmer’s time and ensuring complete accuracy.

The new UKM architecture is backward compatible, so current post processors and machine simulation models for GibbsCAM will continue to provide a return on investment.  In addition, customers will be able to program and simulate the most complex machines on the market, including machines from Bumotec, Citizen, DMG MORI, Doosan, Matsuura, Mazak, Nakamura-Tome, Okuma, Star, Tornos, Willemin-Macodel, and many others.

Significant changes have been made to the tooling functionality of GibbsCAM 2015. In addition to new tool types being added (Barrel, Dovetail, Convex Tip, E-style ISO insert, and tools defined by solids), GibbsCAM now has dynamic 3D viewing of tools and tool-holders in the tool dialog, allowing users to accurately visualize the tools they are selecting for the job.

An entire new category of tooling has been added called Intermediate Tooling. This allows for items that are neither tools nor fixed parts of the machine, such as fixtures (chucks, tailstocks, steadyrests) and toolblocks (adapter blocks, holders for toolholders, and the like). Programmers can create libraries of toolblocks to easily setup complex machines, and can share those libraries across different parts, saving time and reducing errors.

GibbsCAM 2015 has significant improvements throughout the product line, from geometry creation to toolpath strategies, including additional High Speed Machining (HSM) strategies. New functionality has been added to aid in the importing and machining of hole features. Holes are now treated as fully associative features of solid bodies, including those imported from SolidWorks, Solid Edge, Autodesk Inventor, or CATIA V5. Compound holes (holes with multiple segments that might each be tapered or threaded) are now supported as well. New Geometry tools include improved spline editing and contour tracing capabilities. Improvements to machining include new Adaptive Roughing capabilities, pre-drilling and background processing for VoluMill, and many new capabilities for the Tombstone Management System, which has long been recognized as the most comprehensive software for programming parts on a tombstone.