Gibbs and Associates, developer of GibbsCAM® software for programming CNC machine tools and a Cimatron company, announced that a new add-in from SpaceClaim Corporation a leading provider of flexible and affordable 3D modeling software for engineers, is immediately available for GibbsCAM. The GibbsCAM–SpaceClaim Add-in installs dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) that enable the simple file transfer between the two products, and it is available, free of charge, for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of GibbsCAM. Once installed the Add-in appears in GibbsCAM’s Plug-ins drop-down menu, and allows users to import 3D models from SpaceClaim for machining, and to export part models to SpaceClaim for modification or for use in modeling workholding devices with its very friendly, easy to use modeling software. The SpaceClaim-GibbsCAM Add-in is available at SpaceClaim’s Add-in page, together with installation instructions.

“We are pleased to have SpaceClaim as a partner in providing powerful, yet easy-to-use design-through-manufacturing solutions for our customers,” said Robb Weinstein, Senior Vice-President of Sales and Strategic Planning of Gibbs and Associates. “GibbsCAM users are accustomed to moving between design, CNC programming and toolpath verification functions with a single mouse click, so this add-in makes access to SpaceClaim Engineer consistent with our interface, simplifying interoperability for our joint users.”

SpaceClaim Corporation provides intuitive, CAD-neutral modeling software for engineering and manufacturing, enabling the creation of new designs, and the manipulation of existing 2D and 3D geometry. Because it is very easy to use, SpaceClaim believes its SpaceClaim Engineer software is an ideal tool for the machinist and CNC programmer, people who receive CAD models from various sources, in various formats, and who nearly always need to make adjustments or modifications for machining. The software also enables the quick creation of workholding devices, which is another common task for machinists and CNC programmers. SpaceClaim states that, with SpaceClaim Engineer, machinists can edit geometry, optimize designs for manufacturing, and clean up corrupt CAD data, moving on to GibbsCAM for CNC programming three to seven times faster than going through CAD-dependent pre-processing.