{"id":8367,"date":"2025-10-21T10:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T17:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/?p=8367"},"modified":"2025-10-21T13:06:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:06:11","slug":"custom-program-file-names-in-autodesk-fusion-360","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/custom-program-file-names-in-autodesk-fusion-360\/","title":{"rendered":"Custom Program File Names in Autodesk Fusion 360"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"top\" \/>\n<p>Post processing is the CNC term used when you turn a design into a GCode file that the machine can actually run. Autodesk Fusion&#8217;s default naming convention is not all that exciting, and I wanted to make it a little more consistent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are my goals for the resulting GCode filename:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Make the filename contain the project name<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make the filename contain the Setup name<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make the filename contain the Workspace Coordinate System (WCS) aka: the offset<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make the filename have a &#8220;version&#8221; that is easy to increment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>An example: <strong>Spatula &#8211; Wok &#8211; Hibiscus Inlay Pocket WCS_2 v1.tap<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Initially I was leaving out the project name, as I post process all related files to a separate folder on my CNC machine. However, I have similarly named setups, and one time I grabbed the wrong file because I wasn&#8217;t looking at the right folder!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I also always use offsets \/ WCS for my machine (watch this video for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iyP81afV-Io\">how to use WCS offsets<\/a>) and I want to make sure the file&#8217;s WCS corresponds with where I put the workpiece on my spoilboard (aka: the physical origin location matches the file&#8217;s origin location).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:50%\">\n<p>First, on my Setup&#8217;s post processing page I did this (mine has a Machine associated, so the WCS may look different for you).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The &#8220;Program Name\/Number&#8221; defaults to 1001, which is okay, but I&#8217;ll use this as my &#8220;version&#8221; and manually change it to &#8220;1&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The &#8220;Program Comment&#8221; says WCS_10 &#8212; this is automatically generated. I clicked on the 3 dots to the right of the edit box and selected &#8220;Edit Expression&#8221;.  For the expression I put what is shown in the screen shot: <strong>&#8216;WCS_&#8217; + Util.toString(job_workOffset)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wanted these values to stick for every new setup I created, so I clicked the 3 dots and set &#8220;<strong>Save as User Default<\/strong>&#8220;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:50%\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Post-Process-Setup.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Post-Process-Setup.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8368\" width=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Post-Process-Setup.png 806w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Post-Process-Setup-300x266.png 300w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Post-Process-Setup-768x680.png 768w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Post-Process-Setup-322x285.png 322w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 806px) 100vw, 806px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Edit-expression.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"938\" height=\"322\" src=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Edit-expression.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8369\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Edit-expression.png 938w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Edit-expression-300x103.png 300w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Edit-expression-768x264.png 768w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Edit-expression-380x130.png 380w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 938px) 100vw, 938px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wcs-expression-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wcs-expression-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8371\" width=\"281\" height=\"119\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wcs-expression-3.jpg 506w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wcs-expression-3-300x127.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wcs-expression-3-380x161.jpg 380w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 281px) 100vw, 281px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, on the Post Process dialog you will see the &#8220;Name\/number&#8221; come up as that &#8220;Program Name\/Number&#8221; from the setup (ie: &#8220;1&#8221;). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:50%\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/filename-in-post-process.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"354\" src=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/filename-in-post-process-1024x354.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8372\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/filename-in-post-process-1024x354.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/filename-in-post-process-300x104.png 300w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/filename-in-post-process-768x266.png 768w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/filename-in-post-process-380x131.png 380w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/filename-in-post-process-1320x457.png 1320w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/filename-in-post-process.png 1376w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:50%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/expression-for-post-process.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"236\" src=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/expression-for-post-process-1024x236.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8373\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/expression-for-post-process-1024x236.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/expression-for-post-process-300x69.png 300w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/expression-for-post-process-768x177.png 768w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/expression-for-post-process-380x87.png 380w, https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/expression-for-post-process.png 1078w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I can also customize the &#8220;File name&#8221; by clicking on the three dots to the right of it and selecting <strong>Edit Expression<\/strong>. I then made it have the format I talked about earlier: <strong>documentName + &#8216;-&#8216; + nc_program_setup_name + &#8216; &#8216; + nc_program_comment + &#8216; v&#8217; + nc_program_name<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Awesome! That gave me something pretty close to what I wanted. I clicked the three dots again and selected &#8220;<strong>Save as user default<\/strong>&#8220;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now my post process filenames have a consistent format.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Post processing is the CNC term used when you turn a design into a GCode file that the machine can actually run. Autodesk Fusion&#8217;s default naming convention is not all that exciting, and I wanted&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/custom-program-file-names-in-autodesk-fusion-360\/\">[read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[210],"class_list":["post-8367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-cnc"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Post-Process-Setup.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8367"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8376,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8367\/revisions\/8376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}