Soft Jaw Designer creates soft jaw geometry that fits your part, ready to machine and use as workholding. It's available in Autodesk Fusion (Windows only), Mastercam and Siemens NX, and is installed with CAM Assist. It isn't available in GibbsCAM or SolidCAM.
What Soft Jaw Designer does
Soft jaws are vise jaws made from a softer material, such as aluminum or mild steel, and machined to hold one part. Soft Jaw Designer models them for you. It can:
- Cut a pocket in a pair of jaw bodies you already have, or create a pair of block-shaped jaws for you.
- Add corner relief holes so the part sits fully into sharp internal corners.
- Leave a clearance all around the part.
- Shape the jaws so the part doesn't lock into them as they open and close (interlock prevention).
- Step the pocket to several heights for parts that need support at more than one level (multilevel).
Before you start
- Open the part in your CAM package.
- If you want to use your own jaw blanks, model them as two bodies, one per jaw.
Open Soft Jaw Designer
| CAM package | Where to find it |
|---|---|
| Autodesk Fusion (Windows) | In the Manufacture workspace, on the Milling tab, click Fixture Management > Soft Jaw Designer. Fusion switches to the Design workspace. See Use Fixture Management in Autodesk Fusion. |
| Mastercam | On the CloudNC tab, click Soft Jaw Designer. |
| Siemens NX | On the CloudNC tab, click CloudNC Soft Jaw Designer. |
In Autodesk Fusion, the jaws must be bodies for CAM Assist to use them as workholding or avoidance geometry.
In Autodesk Fusion, opening Soft Jaw Designer turns on design history (parametric modeling) for the document if it was off.
If you haven't signed in to CloudNC yet, your browser opens so you can sign in.
Design the jaws
- Under Part, click Select part and click the part in the graphics area. To start a selection again, click Clear selection.
- Optional: under Jaws, click Select the two jaw stocks and click your two jaw bodies. Select exactly two, one per jaw. Skip this step to have Soft Jaw Designer create the jaw blanks.
- Under Jaw Orientation:
- Click Select spindle direction and click a face. Its normal sets the spindle direction.
- Click Select jaw opening direction and click a face. Its normal sets the direction the jaws open.
- Under Jaw Geometry, set the size of the jaw blanks. If you selected your own jaw bodies, these follow the bodies.
- Length: size along X.
- Width: size along Y.
- Height: size along Z.
- Gap: distance between the two jaws.
- Under Jaw Position, place the jaws relative to the part:
- X and Y: offset of the jaws' center from the part's center.
- Z: how far the part sits down into the jaws, measured from the bottom of the part.
- Under Cut-out Geometry:
- Corner Relief Drill Size: the diameter of the relief holes in the pocket's corners. Pick a size you have a drill or end mill for.
- All-around Clearance: the gap between the part and the jaw pocket. Set it for the fit you want.
- Interlock Prevention: tick it for complex shapes that could lock into the jaws as they close or open.
- Optional: tick Multilevel for a stepped pocket. Click Select Z levels and click vertices on the part at each height the pocket should step to. Don't select the top or bottom of the part; they're included automatically. If you select none, Soft Jaw Designer tries to choose the levels itself.
- Run Soft Jaw Designer to create the jaws.
In Mastercam, the jaws are created on a new level named Soft Jaw. If you can't see them, make that level visible.
Check the result
Look over the jaws before you machine them. Depending on the part, you may need to add features yourself, such as clamping or locating details. If the pocket isn't right, run Soft Jaw Designer again with the jaws it made selected under Jaws, and adjust the cut-out settings.
Use the jaws with CAM Assist
- To machine the jaws: open the jaws as the part and run CAM Assist on them like any other part.
- To machine the part held in the jaws: include the jaws in the setup in your CAM package, then check them in the Setups stage: in the setup's card, under Workholding, click Select and pick the jaws in the viewer. In Mastercam, add them as workholding in the Machine Group. See Select avoidance geometry and workholding.
- Set the Workholding security slider on the same setup card to match how firmly the jaws hold the part. See What is workholding security in CAM Assist?
Videos
These CloudNC Academy videos were recorded with an earlier version of CAM Assist, so some screens may look different.