Complex thin-walled workpiece is a kind of key parts in aero-engine. And how to restrain the deformation and vibration of machining process due to its characteristics of weak stiffness, difficult material processing and strong time-varying turns to be a bottleneck to be solved. The reasonable layout of fixture and the promotion of clamping stability can effectively suppress the machining vibration. At present, the intellectualization of fixture system has become the main bottleneck of the popularization of intelligent machining technology. The development of fixture design which can adapt to complex working conditions of thin-wall parts has become a popular research. In this paper, the dynamic modeling of fixture and work-piece, the optimization of fixture layout, the optimization of clamping force and the design of adaptive fixture at present are reviewed. It will be helpful to the design and engineering application of adaptive fixture in the future.