I don't have much to say about this other than the Sumitomo mothership was quite disturbed by this. Our particular branch uses Gibbscam; and the president was sure to fire off lots of emails to make sure we're careful about what we send to our reseller.
This is a really good question / comment / inquiry.
My take;
50,000 ft view.
Sandvik does a lot of very good research on mill-turn platforms (thinking 5 axis / B-axis mill turn type platforms.).
They have various B-axis mill turn machines in house to test new and recent products they have developed - constant and ongoing R&D from now and the foreseeable future [Probably long after we are all gone.].
ESPRIT - obviously being one of the main GOOD software for B axis / multi axis / multi-turn / mill turn CAM platforms; was acquired recently by
Hexagon group (also being allied to the
Okuma ecosystem in part).
So
Sandvik pouncing on
Gibbs-cam sort of makes sense, given how many CAD/CAM related companies have been acquired by
AD*.
Personally (my own narrow view through the prism) there are many things that could be improved with
Gibbs-cam to make it a better experience for B-axis / 5 axis mill-turn - "Like" or EVEN BETTER than
Esprit. [Not bashing Gibbs ].
Autodesk has acquired a number of CAD/CAM companies and many companies in the 3d / professional 3D graphics and info graphic arena.
People "Hope" that the functionality of a particular and favored (by users) AD acquisition would make it into other AD (less expensive) products, but in practice this is very difficult to achieve especially in a cost effective and efficient manner. "Hacking"-through someone else's code base and engineering some sort of "wrapper-ed " compatibility - that's a lot more difficult and $$$$$$$-intensive than what most people normally suppose. Really good and difficult to understand core capabilities and modules might be "Ported" over to other AD products, but in large measure it IS a competitive buyout in most cases as a more efficient and cheaper way to achieve "Market share".
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In the case of Sandvik acquiring Gibbs-Cam , I think or perceive that as a GOOD thing (maybe). As it is within Sandvik's interest to further develop and enhance the raw capabilities of Gibbs-Cam esp. for mill turn machines/ 5 axis multi tasking machines that are becoming increasingly more relevant.
~ Given that
Sumitomo makes really good products for 5 axis mill turn type applications (and obviously much else besides) that could be a win-win,
But OTOH I know with
MAZAK integrex control and digital integration and mirroring of machines for office programming the 3D geometric tool libraries are more plug and play with the
Sandvik products.
Not exactly sure how fine that goes to the individual "Insert" geometry. - others here would know better.
I suspect long run that may be of benefit to
Sumimoto(sp) to make
GibbsCam better but seems
Sumimoto might have to engage with the MTBs more directly just to make things as equally "convenient" as the
Sandvik - MAZAK / integrex relationship. Smaller segment of the market (obviously) but these days everything seems so marginal.
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In short I don't think it's a reason for Sumimoto to panic, and could actually be of mutual benefit. But maybe I'm missing something super obvious. I can understand why "Peeps" would be triggered given how AD has been acquiring companies for market share. ~Competitive buyout- that inadvertently leans into monopolisticly(sp) styled advantages.