Fixture Management in Autodesk Fusion has two tools: Soft Jaw Designer for designing soft jaws, and Generate Avoidance Geometry for adding a block under the part that toolpaths should keep out of. Both are in the CAM Assist panel of the Manufacture workspace's Milling tab.
Generate avoidance geometry
- Open the part and check each setup has its stock defined.
- On the Milling tab, click Fixture Management > Generate Avoidance Geometry.
- Under Target setups, tick each setup that needs avoidance geometry. Only the first setup is ticked at first.
- Click Generate.
For each setup, CAM Assist adds a box body named Avoidance Geometry - <setup name>. It covers the stock's width and depth, from the bottom of the stock up to 1 mm below the lowest point of the part. If there's less than 2 mm between the bottom of the stock and the part, the box is 1 mm tall and moves down to stay 1 mm clear of the part, even if that puts it below the stock.
Next, open CAM Assist and select the new body as avoidance geometry for that setup. See Select avoidance geometry and workholding.
If it doesn't work
| Message | Fix |
|---|---|
No CAM Setups specified. Please open a file or create at least one setup. |
Create a setup, then try again. |
No target setup selected. Please pick at least one Setup in the General Tab and then try again. |
Tick at least one setup under Target setups. The General tab it mentions isn't in this dialog. |
Unable to open the dialog for generating Avoidance geometry |
Switch to the Manufacture workspace with the part open, then try again. |
Failed to generate avoidance geometry |
Check the setup's stock is defined, then try again. |
Open Soft Jaw Designer
Soft Jaw Designer is Windows only. The Windows CAM Assist installer installs it.
- On the Milling tab, click Fixture Management > Soft Jaw Designer.
Autodesk Fusion switches to the Design workspace and opens Soft Jaw Designer.
Opening Soft Jaw Designer turns on design history (parametric modeling) for the document if it was off.
For how to use Soft Jaw Designer once it's open, see Design soft jaws with Soft Jaw Designer. In Autodesk Fusion, the jaws must be bodies for CAM Assist to use them.
If it doesn't open
| Message | Fix |
|---|---|
SoftJaws available for Windows only |
Use Soft Jaw Designer on a Windows computer. |
Failed to launch Soft Jaw Designer: Addin command not found. |
Soft Jaw Designer isn't installed or isn't running. Install the latest version of CAM Assist, then restart Autodesk Fusion. |
Failed to find design product in Fusion, cannot activate parametric design. or Failed to open Soft Jaws designer dialog. |
Restart Autodesk Fusion and try again. |
Still not working?
If you've done all of the above, contact CloudNC support. Include the part file and the log files from:
- Windows:
%APPDATA%\Autodesk\Autodesk Fusion 360\API\AddIns\CAMAssist\logs - Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/Autodesk Fusion 360/API/AddIns/CAMAssist/logs
Videos
These CloudNC Academy videos were recorded with an earlier version of CAM Assist, so some screens may look different.