When I create PDFs & DXFs, I inject them with their Drawing properties so they can have all the rich PDM Data Cards and Search capabilities other PDM files do.

I also add the drawing and model files as references to the PDF/DXF, so the entire lot is linked together when they travel through a workflow.  Essentially when a user transitions an assembly to Release, I want the reference list to show/include the related PDFs and DXFs.

As a final step, I have PDFs & DXFs setup as drawing nodes to SW drawings.  So, the SLDASM shows the SLDDRW drawing node, and the SLDDRW shows the PDF & DXF as drawing nodes.  Everything seems to work very well !

Question

If the drawing nodes are properly configured, do I really need to have the PDFs & DXFs reference their drawings?  I think I might have jumped the gun here with two solutions when I really just needed to setup the PDFs & DXFs as drawing nodes to the drawing?

My dilemma is when I open a PDF, it wants to 'get latest' on all its references... this can quickly spiral out of control and not desirable. It appears the Drawing node setting 'Preview does not need referenced files' doesn't seem to apply to the 'Open File' function.  Or possibly, I shouldn't have the hardwired reference to the drawing in place?

I realize this is all pretty deep, but does anyone have any words of wisdom?

Greg,

PDM 2016