Having everything in one Master Sketch Part may be workable with 200 parts.  But, if you scale that to 2k parts, I would think you are going to have performance problems...as well as management problems.

I do something somewhat similar, but broken up. 0.SSP drives overall dimensions. A 2 level part may get information from 0.SSP, but never directly.  It has to be passed to a 1 level SSP then to the 2 level SSP.  Then the 2 level part gets the information from the 2 level SSP.  This is a method of driving down the feature tree and scales well to large assemblies.  You set everything in the top level asm to lightweight and only change subasms to resolved to push changes down the tree.

Dwight Livingston  wrote:

 

I could be completely wrong, but in my head I take these meanings:

 

Top-down = in-context relations (apply between components in the context of an assembly).

Master Model = relations between parts via solid model geometry in one part model

SSP = relations between parts via sketches in one part model

 

Feel free to bash these misconceptions.

 

Dwight

SSP = All Three

A top-down approach (also known as stepwise design and in some cases used as a synonym of decomposition) is essentially the breaking down of a system to gain insight into its compositional sub-systems in a reverse engineering fashion. In a top-down approach an overview of the system is formulated, specifying, but not detailing, any first-level subsystems. Each subsystem is then refined in yet greater detail, sometimes in many additional subsystem levels, until the entire specification is reduced to base elements. A top-down model is often specified with the assistance of "black boxes", which makes it easier to manipulate. However, black boxes may fail to clarify elementary mechanisms or be detailed enough to realistically validate the model. Top down approach starts with the big picture. It breaks down from there into smaller segments.^[1]

A bottom-up approach is the piecing together of systems to give rise to more complex systems, thus making the original systems sub-systems of the emergent system. Bottom-up processing is a type of information processing based on incoming data from the environment to form a perception. From a cognitive psychology perspective, information enters the eyes in one direction (sensory input, or the "bottom"), and is then turned into an image by the brain that can be interpreted and recognized as a perception (output that is "built up" from processing to final cognition). In a bottom-up approach the individual base elements of the system are first specified in great detail. These elements are then linked together to form larger subsystems, which then in turn are linked, sometimes in many levels, until a complete top-level system is formed. This strategy often resembles a "seed" model, by which the beginnings are small but eventually grow in complexity and completeness. However, "organic strategies" may result in a tangle of elements and subsystems, developed in isolation and subject to local optimization as opposed to meeting a global purpose.

On a Top Down, we start with assembly and break it down to sub-assemblies and parts.

On Bottom Up, we start with parts, sub-assemblies then assembly.

So usually we start SSP from Top Down with an overall picture/sketch of the final assembly.

After that, it all depends on what you want to do.

Assemble a few purchased parts to the SSP and design a frame to hold them.

Add customer part to make a fixture.

Dwight Livingston wrote:

 

I could be completely wrong, but in my head I take these meanings:

 

Top-down = in-context relations (apply between components in the context of an assembly).

Master Model = relations between parts via solid model geometry in one part model

SSP = relations between parts via sketches in one part model

 

Feel free to bash these misconceptions.

 

Dwight

SSP to me means that one sketch part in an asm drives all the parts and subasms in the asm.  This can include ssps that are also in the subasms. 

Master Model to me means a part that drives other parts in an asm.  To me this would be only a single asm.  But, I also don't use that method and so, I may have this part wrong.

Top-down describes both of the above and any other in-context modelling.  Top-down is a category both Master Model and SSP fall under.

That's my take on it, anyway.