30 Years of Gibbs & Associates

Bill Gibbs, President and founder of Gibbs and Associates, a Cimatron company and developer of GibbsCAM software for programming CNC machine tools, announces that the company it is celebrating 30 years of innovation in the CAD/CAM industry. 

“We want to extend our thanks to our customers,” Gibbs says. “We owe our longevity in this market to them. We learn and grow from them every day, and would not be here without them. And in return, they have our commitment to ongoing growth and improvements to GibbsCAM that ensures that the investment they have made in our CAM software will continue to pay dividends for them in the future.”

Gibbs continues, “In addition to our customers, we are grateful to our employees and industry partners that have all contributed to the successful business that we are today, with 2011 being the most profitable year in our 30 year history.”

In 1982, Gibbs began a business venture as an NC Programmer with a CAM system that he had designed for a machine tool dealer. That venture changed direction two years later with the introduction of the Apple Macintosh computer. Impressed by the graphics and graphic user interface, Gibbs knew that the Macintosh computer would be the perfect platform for a user-friendly CAM system, and soon after began development on The Gibbs System. The Macintosh-based Gibbs System focused on “CAD/CAM for the Machinist,” providing tools that were easy to use and specialized for their purposes.

In 1993, the popularity of IBM PCs led Gibbs to create a PC-based CAM system, called Virtual Gibbs, later renamed GibbsCAM. Coming from a Macintosh background proved useful in creating software that is both easy to learn and easy to use. Powerfully Simple, Simply Powerful has been a guiding philosophy of the development of GibbsCAM, utilizing a graphic-user interface and continuing to focus on programming parts with the machinist in mind. Moveable tiles, high quality graphics, and the ability to see the part being cut on-screen have all contributed to GibbsCAM becoming a leading CAM system.

In January, 2008, Gibbs and Associates merged with Cimatron Ltd., a leading provider of CAD/CAM solutions for the tool, die and mold making markets, to become an independently operated subsidiary of the Cimatron Group, also celebrating its 30 year anniversary. The combination provides customers a much broader range of best-in-class CAD/CAM applications, and provides the combined company a much stronger, worldwide presence to access and support customers in manufacturing.

Gibbs continues to add power and functionality to its product line and offers a full complement of solutions. With its roots in production milling and turning, Gibbs later added improvements for full 3-axis machining of surfaces and solid models, multi-task machining (MTM), both 4- and 5-axis simultaneous machining, wire EDM and Machine Simulation. Gibbs has built an impressive library of over 11,000 edit-free post processors, as well as CAD interoperability for all the major CAD systems.

“We are proud of the breadth of our product line,” Gibbs states, “Our longevity in the CAM market has enabled us to handle a wide span of both parts and machines. We are especially proud of our leadership position in the MTM market, the most productive CNC machines in the world. It has been a privilege to serve the CAM industry for these last three decades, and I am excited about what the future holds.”