Question:
Is there a way to create an assembly that “inherits” assemblies, parts, and features from a reference model, that can be modified independently of the original?
Background:
I have to make interface control drawings to control the design of certain assemblies for which I do not design. I am maintaining a separate CAD model to create the control drawings, but many design changes feed back into changes to the interface control drawings. The actual assembly now looks nothing like the original interface control model, and it's getting hard to connect the two. I want to be able to propagate changes from the actual assembly model to my interface control model ONLY when I choose to.
Similar Creo feature:
I am aware of the basic “copy geometry” and “external simplified representations”, but I don’t think any of these do the job. Creo has the ability to do this for parts, called “inheritance features”, where you can have a part that “inherits” an entire reference part. This inherited feature (which is basically an entire reference part) can be modified independently of the original part (you can basically modify the reference part within your new part). In other words, changes are a one-way propagation from the reference part to the new part, but changes to the inheritance feature does not propagate back to the original part. And the great thing is you can choose to propagate new changes from the original part when you want to. Is there an equivalent for assemblies?
Thanks for any help or suggestions you have.
