Fixtures are parts or assemblies that help orient and hold the workpiece during a CMM operation. You can create and save a fixture in Part or Assembly mode, and retrieve the fixture into CMM during the fixture setup.

To use fixtures in the CMM process, you must first define the fixture setups for the CMM model. Each fixture setup has a name and contains information about the fixtures that are to be present in the model when the setup is active. Only one setup can be active at a time. Setup names can be used to manipulate fixtures within the CMM model. Since fixture setups contain fixture assembly information, each CMM model has to have its fixture setup(s) explicitly defined; unlike sites or probes, you cannot retrieve a fixture setup from one model into another CMM model. Fixture setups can be defined at the time of setting up an operation or at any time between CMM sequences.