I have a part that is made out of a very thin piece of copper foil. I modeled it simply as an extruded rectangle. Since the material is so thing you can bend it very easily and fold it back and forth on itself. In my assembly I want to be able to bend this material upwards. If it just goes straight out it will hit the mount in front of it while in reality it will very very easily curve up if a force is applied. Is there a way I can do this?
Easiest way is going to be to make the part defined in the assembly so the definition would update based on other parts.
One way: create the cross-section on one end, then define the opposite end in the assembly and dimension/relate it to the mating parts. Then if you loft between the two profiles SW will recreate the part when your assemly changes.
Alternate: do a sweep and have the guide curve defined in the assembly.
There are several ways depending on what is most realistic for your conditions.