What is the function of the references collector in the Geometric Tolerance ribbon? I would have thought it controlled the attachment of the geotol but that is done through the "change reference" command available when the tolerance is selected. Picture attached showing the specific button I am talking about.
That is to collect the sematic references associated with the dimensions. Predominantly these will be surfaces. In the Model Based Definition (MBD) world these surfaces are used by downstream applications. For instance if you get to inspection then the inspection software will know what surfaces to measure that correspond to that annotation.
Unfortunately at the present time collecting these sematic references is not automatic, but you can vote for them to be so:
