Whether you’re a job-shop working with neutral CAD data (STEP, IGES, Parasolid, PDF, etc.) or your company is vertically integrated with design and manufacturing in-house, you need to hold the part in place with an easy to use, configurable fixture or jig. Designing custom fixtures and jigs for each new job can be time-consuming, tedious, and, most importantly, costly. 

In this demonstration, we showcase some fixture-building techniques using CAD tools available in Siemens CAM software packages. Using basic modeling and assembly techniques combined with NX’s powerful Synchronous Modeling toolset, you'll be able to quickly create a tool holding solution that's both associative and reusable.

One-off or small production runs vs. high-volume manufacturing and maximizing work area utilization should be considered when designing a work part holding solution. You may want to choose to use a work-holding vice with custom faces for soft or hard jaws. A well designed fixture can minimize tooling costs, tool changes, and unnecessary cutting head movements to keep cutting chips instead of cutting air. You may find a "pretty close" solution from a previous job but the CAD rework is too difficult or time-consuming so you design a one-off fixture. The solution is to reduce your tooling costs by leveraging reuse.

This webinar was held on Thursday, August 15