So I have GibbsCAM 2005 v7.7.5 basic milling package (no solids or other fancy stuff). I also have Solid Works 2005 SP02 (not sure what SP02 means). My current method of data exchange is to print a drawing from SW and manually enter in all the geometry into Gibbs. It just seems to me that there should be an easier way! The sad part is that I even have this handy little book that Gibbs sent with the software titled; Data Exchange but I still can't figure it out. I believe my problem is that I just don't have a broad enough understanding of the CAD - CAM world so I need some advice from someone that does. I suppose that's where all you intelligent and helpful people come into play. I need your help!

What do you mean by data exchange? Are you trying to import a drawing from Solid Works into Gibbs? We use Rhino for most of our CAD work then inport into Gibbs as a iges. Just go to the file menu in gibbs and select import and choose your file type. I hope this is what you are looking for.

You should be able to save your file as a .dxf file then import a 2d drawing since you only have the basic version you can't import a solid model