New drawing reference based off of similar drawing that is already made

All I can think of is open the old drawing and do a Save As. It will keep the ref of all the views to the old part. You can update all, or any view as needed, to the new part.

It's probably my fault, but I'm not real clear on what you're trying to do.  If you have a completed Part and Drawing, and you need to create a new Part and Drawing that are very similar, then Pack and Go will work nicely.  See How can I create a new Assembly or Drawing similar to an existing one?.

What do you want to reference???

Geometry

Custom Properties

Sheet Layout

If you want to do what I think you are wanting to do then try this:

You currently have:

Drawing1 which is a drawing of Part1.

You also have Part2.  And you want to make a drawing just like Drawing1, except that it now references Part2.

Here is how you do that:

Open Drawing1 and run a Save as.  Call it Drawing2 (or whatever).

Now, inside Drawing2, run a "Replace Model" on the drawing views and select Part2 as the reference.

2017 SOLIDWORKS Help - Replace Model for Drawing Views

This may screw up most of the dimensions, which you might need to replace.....but all notes and whatnot will still be there.  Make sure you get all drawing views

in open when your at the drawing

click the ref

then double click the part and navigate to where the new part is.

open and do a save as on the new drawing.

old drawing keeps ref

new save as should be ref to new part.