Is there a way to make a reference coordinate system active and usable for sketches, drawings, etc?

Background - at times I import (parasolid, step, and/or igs) assemblies with perhaps a couple hundred components, then some of the items are modified.  For the modified items, sometimes the solid is not in the intuitive coordinate system at the component level - for example a rectangular block may not be aligned to the standard xyz coordinate system.   When modifying these parts and when making drawings, it is quite cumbersome when the solid is not in the standard coordinate system

I've made a reference coordinate system but cannot find a method to make it active when doing solid operations nor making drawings.  Have used "move/copy body" to bring the component-level solid to the standard coordinate system, but then in the assembly file the body has moved out of location so that does not work.   I've read that the reference coordinate system can be used for exporting, but to export and then re-import would be quite cumbersome as the imported solid would need to be aligned to the original solid, and overlain solids would then exist, etc... which may be just as cumbersome as dealing with skewed solids.

Is there a way to use the reference coordinate system, other than exporting and re-importing?  Or is there a different approach to achieve the goal?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

Scott