Hi all

First post on here, hope you can help. Am currently working through my first project where I'm trying to use bona fide master modelling from the word go. It seems all good and I'm very happy with the methodology, but I'm running into problems now I'm trying to take parts out into their individual files to do detailing, assembly models etc.

In order to make the derived parts, I'm right-clicking the relevant solid bodies in the master model, and selecting "insert into new part". This is based from advice given to me by our VAR who suggested this was more appropriate for what I was doing compared to "split part" or "save bodies" feature pushing the body out of the master. I understand that the end result is a "pull" feature in the derived part - the so-called "stock" feature, and this method results in no changes to the master model. I'm comfortable with that and it seems like a good way of working when you don't need to output a body at a particular point in the feature history of the master.

All went well, detailing completed and drawings sent out to suppliers. One supplier came back with suggested changes. Nothing big, but it involved a change at the master model level which caused several features to fall over. By the time I was done fixing it, the solid body that the "stock" feature (in the derived part) was looking for had changed name/internal ID/colour/smell etc. and now this "stock" feature has fallen over, as have all the subsequent features in the derived part, and the drawing...etc...etc.

So, question is, how can I point the stock feature, in the derived part, back to the intended solid body in the master model? It would seem bizarre if you couldn't do this, on the face of it I can think of no reason why you shouldn't be able to change where the stock feature "pulls" the body from, but I'll be damned if I can find anything. Just got off the phone with said VAR and they are none the wiser, but believe it can be done. They are looking into it, but they don't seem to know, so thought I would hedge my bets...

Mark Biasotti's post in this following link (the one near the end) also suggests it can be done, but I have no idea how to "edit" the stock feature as he advises...I've only got "edit in context", and that of course takes me back to the master model, from where I cannot sort out this problem...

https://forum.solidworks.com/thread/64309

If it can't be done then I'm in a situation where a couple of days worth of detailing has to be repeated, as I can't leave all the derived parts with such fragile and precious features at the strt of their trees! So I'm really hoping someone out there knows the answer to this...

Many thanks in advance for your help,

Al Fraser