I have a layout sketch with several blocks that I used to create parts (using the create part from block command). Everything was working fine for awhile, but then I updated a dimension in one of the blocks (in the layout sketch itself), the block updates in the layout sketch, but does not update in the part. The block seems to still be associated with the layout sketch because it won't let me edit the block in the part itself.

I also have trouble with parts generated from the blocks keeping relations. Typically I don't create any features from the first block sketch from the created part to keep the main block completely separate from everything else. I'll then create features based off of that block. I then have trouble with sketches completely blowing up from apparently losing references. For example if a mate a line endpoint to an endpoint in the block and it calls it something like "Point21" sometimes when I update or change between configurations that line gets constrained to a completely different point and I have to manually change it back. It seems that while the line is always constrained to "Point21" that what "Point21" actually is changes.

I also have trouble with the direction of a dimension staying consistent. For example I may dimension something as 1" to the left of a point, and then out of nowhere it changes to 1" to the right of the point. All of these things seem to be "book keeping" sort of things that when a sketch or model gets even moderately complicated Solidworks completely confuses them.

Has anyone else had these problems with layout sketches? It seems like a powerful tool, but there seem to be a lot of bugs. Solidworks seems to do a good job as a part modeler (as in if a part already exists or is clearly defined), but if you try to do any actual design work from scratch that even relatively simple things completely overwhelm it.