Fusion 360 add-in v0.4.0Early access

Tube & Pipe Routing

The tube and pipe workflow SolidWorks Routing and Inventor Tube & Pipe have natively, inside Fusion 360: route along 3D sketches, drop in fittings, auto-route around obstacles, and export what the bender and the saw need — CNC bend tables, developed lengths and fishmouth notch templates.

Get early access See what it does

545 sizes

21 pipe & tube families

LRA / YBC

CNC bend tables

1:1 PDF + DXF

notch templates

A four-bend tube in the foreground and a machine skid with three auto-routed lines behind it, all built by Tube & Pipe Routing in Fusion 360

Why it exists

Asked for since 2016, still not in Fusion

Fusion users have routed tube by sweeping circles along sketches and typed bend tables by hand for years. This add-in does the sweep, the fittings, the trims and — the part that actually costs time — the fabrication data, with the same build-and-rebuild discipline as the Weldments add-in it grew from.

Route Pipe

Sweep pipes and tubes from the size library along 3D sketch lines and arcs. Sharp corners become bends at the centreline radius (CLR); sketch arcs keep their radius. Editable, rebuildable, component or body output.

Fitting

Parametric elbows (90° LR/SR, 45°), equal and reducing tees, crosses, caps, concentric reducers, slip-on / weld-neck / blind flanges (EN 1092-1, ASME B16.5, JIS 10K) at any sketch node. Pipes are trimmed by centre-to-face plus root gap.

Fitting from Model

Store any solid — a vendor STEP valve, a coupling, a push-fit connector — with its port edges as a reusable fitting. Ports auto-align and the pipes cut back by the insertion depth.

Auto Route

An orthogonal path between two points around the bodies you select, with clearance and bend avoidance, as a 3D sketch and optionally the pipe itself. A real interference check runs afterwards.

Bend Data

LRA / YBC tables with feeds, rotations, bend angles, arc lengths and developed length; XYZ apexes in model and machine frames; springback set-angle and mark positions with die offset; validation; CSV.

Weld Joints

Every weld of the model listed the way a pipe shop quotes it — per joint, in diameter-inches: butt or socket welds at elbow, tee, reducer, cap and weld-neck flange ports, slip-on flange fillets, field joints between tubes, set-on branches with the saddle curve length; joints previewed on the model, excludable by click. Deposited metal, wire, minutes and cost from your rates; bronze bead rings on the model; CSV and PDF.

Cutting List + Notch Template

Tubes grouped by size and bend sequence with developed length and mass, a fittings BOM, CSV and PDF with a bend table per unique tube. Fishmouth notches unrolled to a 1:1 tiled PDF and DXF.

The commands on the ribbon

Route Pipe

Sweep a library size along 3D lines and arcs; bends at the CLR.

Fitting

Elbows, tees, crosses, caps, reducers, flanges at a node.

Fitting from Model

Turn a vendor solid into a reusable fitting with ports.

Auto Route

Orthogonal path between two points around obstacles.

Bend Data

LRA / YBC, XYZ, springback, marks, validation, CSV.

Cutting List

Developed lengths, mass, fittings BOM, weld summary, CSV + PDF.

Weld Joints

Per-joint weld list in dia-inch with deposit, time, cost and bead rings.

Notch Template

Fishmouth unrolled 1:1 to PDF and DXF.

Manage Library

545 sizes; add by hand, from a face, or by CSV.

Fusion 360 with the Tube & Pipe tab open: a machine skid with tank, pump, motor and cabinet, three routed tube lines with slip-on flanges, a tee, reducer and cap, the browser listing fittings and pipes — In Fusion: the Tube & Pipe tab on a skid — three auto-routed lines, a hand-routed 32 x 2 header with tee, reducer, cap and flanges; every fitting and pipe is a rebuildable item in the browser.

Route Pipe dialog in Fusion 360: path selection, ISO/EN standard, steel pipe EN 10255 family, DN8 size, bend radius, elongation, minimum straight, component output — Route Pipe dialog: path, standard / family / size, bend radius, minimum straight — the tube sweeps with bends at the CLR.

A 25 x 2 tube with four 90-degree bends routed along a 3D sketch — Route Pipe: four 90° bends at CLR 50 from a 3D polyline, one command.

Workshop compressed-air ring main: a rectangular ring line with a flanged feed and six vertical drops, each with a flanged ball valve and a wall outlet flange — The same commands at workshop scale: a compressed-air ring main — the ring, the feed and six valved drops with outlet flanges. Every drop is a rebuildable pipe-plus-fittings item; change the sketch and rebuild.

Bend Data

What the bender types in, straight from the model

Every routed tube carries its bend sequence. Bend Data turns it into the table a CNC or manual bender works from and checks it against the machine before you cut anything.

✓LRA / YBC — length (feed), rotation and angle per bend, arc length, and the developed cut length.
✓XYZ apexes in the model frame and in the machine frame (first leg along the axis).
✓Springback set-angle and mark positions with die offset for manual benders.
✓Validation — legs shorter than the clamp, tangents that overlap, CLR below the die — flagged before export.
✓CSV for the machine, PDF bend table per unique tube in the Cutting List.

Bend Data dialog in Fusion 360 over the skid pipework: convention LRA, rotation sign, first-bend reference, machine frame, springback and mark offset, and the bend table of the 25 x 2 line — Bend Data dialog: all six routed tubes, LRA convention, bender setup (springback, die mark offset) and the live bend table of the 25 x 2 line — 1283 mm developed, 1.46 kg.

Tube cutting list PDF with a bend table per unique tube and a machine-frame XY sketch — Cutting List PDF: tubes grouped by size and bend sequence, one bend table per unique tube plus the machine-frame view, fittings BOM and weld summary.

Route Pipe picks the radius for you

The library carries a default CLR per size (typically 2–3 × OD). Type your own die radius once and it sticks; changing the size no longer overwrites it.

Fittings trim the pipes

A tee or elbow at a node cuts the pipes back by centre-to-face plus the root gap you set; delete the fitting and the pipes grow back on rebuild.

Notch Template

Cylinder-on-cylinder fishmouths from two cylindrical faces or typed parameters, unrolled to a 1:1 tiled PDF you wrap around the tube, and a DXF for the plasma.

Edit and rebuild

Routes and fittings are stored with the document. Pick a tube to edit its path, size or CLR; everything downstream is rebuilt.

Auto Route

Two points, the bodies to avoid, done

An orthogonal path is searched around the obstacles with your clearance and a bend-count penalty, drawn as a 3D sketch and, if you like, routed as the pipe straight away. Pick a preferred side (above, left…) or let it take the shortest way. Every leg is kept long enough for the bender’s clamp, pipes already routed count as obstacles, and a real BRep interference check confirms the result.

Auto Route dialog in Fusion 360 on the skid: start, end, via points and obstacles selection, grid step, clearance, margin, preferred side, fewer bends, output standard / family / size — Auto Route dialog: start, end, optional via points and the bodies to avoid; grid step, clearance, margin; the pipe is built directly in the size you choose.

Notch Template

Fishmouth cuts without the guesswork

Pick two cylindrical faces (or type the radii, angle and offset) and the saddle curve is unrolled 1:1 onto tiled A4 pages with a 100 mm check bar — wrap, mark, cut — or exported as DXF for the plasma table.

Unrolled fishmouth notch template for a 19 mm tube on a 38 mm tube at 60 degrees — Notch Template: Ø19.05 onto Ø38.1 at 60°, 1:1 with a 100 mm check bar.

Flanged pipe assembly built by Tube & Pipe Routing: two headers with flanges, an equal cross, a tee, a flanged ball valve, caps and a base flange — Fitting at scale: flanges, tee, cross, ball valve and caps on twin headers — every pipe trimmed back by the fitting's centre-to-face plus root gap.

Close-up of a flanged ball valve with lever handle between two mating flanges on a pipe run — Flanged ball valve dropped in as a fitting — the pipes trim back to its ports like any other fitting.

Machine skid with tank, pump, motor, cabinet and portal frame; three auto-routed tube lines weave between them, the main line flanged at both ends — Auto Route on a skid: three lines (25 x 2 flanged, two 20 x 2) routed one after another around tank, pump, motor, cabinet and the portal beam — each finished line becomes an obstacle for the next.

Pipes already routed are obstacles

Leave the obstacle selection empty and every visible body counts, including the lines you routed before — so route them in order of priority.

Bends the bender can make

Every straight leg is at least two bend radii plus the OD, so each corner can be bent at the CLR of the chosen size; if the obstacles block every route you get a message, not a broken pipe.

Real interference check

After the pipe is built it is intersected with every obstacle body (a BRep boolean, not bounding boxes); any body it still touches is listed by name.

Weld Joints

The weld list a pipe shop actually quotes from

Pipework is priced per joint, not per millimetre of seam: the shop unit is the diameter-inch (nominal size × joints × a type factor). Weld Joints reads every joint straight from the fittings and tube ends you modelled — no geometry scanning, nothing to select — and prices it with the same estimator model as Steel Frame & Weldments Pro.

✓Butt welds at every port of an elbow, tee, reducer, cap, weld-neck flange or custom fitting, and between two collinear tubes of the same size.
✓Socket welds for small-bore fittings below the OD you set (B16.11 practice, factor 0.75); slip-on flanges as two fillets; set-on branches with the real saddle intersection length and a 1.5 factor.
✓Joints drawn on the model with their labels — butt, fillet, set-on curve — and any joint excluded with a click (a flange that bolts to customer equipment) stays listed but out of the count.
✓Per joint: size, length, dia-inch, deposited metal (single-V butt or fillet), wire, minutes per dia-inch, cost — live in the dialog, remembered rates, CSV and PDF with a per-type/size summary.
✓Bead rings built on the model in a Welds component so renders and reviews show where the welds are; the Cutting List PDF carries the weld summary.

Pipe header with a slip-on flange, equal tee with a capped branch, concentric reducer and weld-neck flange, every joint carrying a bronze weld bead ring — Weld Joints on a 32 x 2 header: slip-on flange, tee (3 butt welds), reducer 32→25, weld-neck flange, cap — 10 joints, 12.3 dia-inch, 71 g wire, 5.1 h at 25 min/dia-inch.

Weld Joints dialog in Fusion 360 over the skid pipework with obstacles hidden: rates and assumptions, socket-weld threshold, show joints and exclude joints, and the per-joint table with slip-on flange rows — Weld Joints dialog on the skid: joints drawn on the model with their labels, rates and the socket-weld threshold on the right, the live per-joint table — wire, minutes and cost per row.

Library

545 pipe and tube sizes, 21 families

Real wall thicknesses and outside diameters from the standards, plus your own sizes — add one by hand, from a cylindrical face in the model, or by CSV.

EN / ISO steelpipe + tube: EN 10255 steel pipe, EN 10305 precision tube, ISO sizes.
NPS Sch 5 – 160ANSI / ASME: Nominal pipe sizes in every common schedule.
DOM and aluminium tubefabrication: Drawn-over-mandrel and aluminium round tube in fractional and metric sizes.
DIN sanitary, copper, PVCprocess: Hygienic tube, copper pipe and PVC pressure pipe.
JIS SGPJapan: Japanese carbon-steel pipe sizes.
Fittingsparametric: Elbows, tees, crosses, caps, reducers and flanges to EN 1092-1 PN10/16/40, ASME B16.5 150/300 and JIS 10K.

Workflow

Sketch the centreline, route, hand over the bend table

Sketch or auto-route

Draw the 3D centreline with lines and arcs, or give Auto Route two points and the bodies to avoid.

Route and fit

Route Pipe along the path with a library size and CLR; add tees, elbows, flanges, reducers or your own vendor fittings at the nodes.

Export

Bend Data for the bender, Cutting List with developed lengths and the fittings BOM, Notch Template for the saddle cuts.

Availability

Early access now, App Store listing next

Version 0.4.0 has its engine under a 42-case automated matrix and is in hands-on testing. Write for an early-access build if routing, bend data or notch templates are on your bench today — feedback from real tube work shapes the 1.0.

Tube & Pipe Routing v0.4.0

Early access

Windows and macOS. Same licensing as Weldments: free trial on first run, Autodesk App Store purchase unlocks through your Autodesk sign-in.

Get early access Ask a question

Common questions

Which bend formats does it export?

LRA (length-rotation-angle) and YBC tables with arc lengths and developed length, plus XYZ apex coordinates in the model and machine frames, as CSV and in the PDF cut list.

Can I use my own valves and couplings?

Yes. Fitting from Model stores any solid with its port edges; the next time you place it the ports align to the route and the pipes cut back by the insertion depth you set.

Does Auto Route avoid my other parts?

It routes orthogonally around the bodies you select (or every visible body) with your clearance, keeps legs long enough for the bender, and runs a real interference check on the result.

Is it related to Weldments?

Same developer, same engine underneath (sweep, persistence, rebuild, cut lists, PDF). The fishmouth notch template lives here; weld beads, base plates and stock optimisation live in Steel Frame & Weldments Pro.

Feedback

Bending on a machine I have not met?

Tell me the bender, the table format it wants and the sizes you run. Early-access users get the format added, not a workaround.