Parental visitation rights are important not only because they give a parent legal access to a child, but because the child involved is able to see each parent at least some of the time. This is normally healthier for a child, since both parents tend to be involved in the child's life and supportive of the child's needs.
Most judges will order reasonable visitation in cases where parents can work together. What this means is that you and your ex-spouse should work together to come up with a parental visitation plan that works well for both of your schedules. This is best in circumstances where both parties can still cooperate.
If you and your ex can't cooperate to create your visitation schedule, it's possible for the court to create a visitation schedule. This is usually not preferred, since it doesn't allow the parents to work around other obligations.
In day-to-day life, the custodial parent tends to have more control over the visitation schedule. However, if the parent becomes inflexible or is being unreasonable, the case can go to court, and a judge can change the order to help the other parent get more time with his or her child.
If you are placed on a fixed visitation schedule, it means that there are set times when you can see your child. This might be weekends, on holidays or during other time periods. This is most commonly done in cases where parents are still having conflicts, because it creates strict guidelines for how often the parent with visitation rights gets to see the child.