And to complete the conversation with top-down assemblies:
If you don't have the extension that does skeletons (advance assembly extension?) then you can still use this as a reference to help manage top-down assemblies.
The techniques above still apply with a few caveats.
Create a skeleton model (1 or more) and use this to define general interfaces. Sketches, datums, parameters, etc. that defines your general design intent. This is your sketchpad.
As you build associativity other than assembly constraints; use the skeleton model to build external relations. "pitch" for instance would be a skeleton parameter and could be used in a sketch to define how "pitch" was used.
You can still use the parameters directly using the session ID but you would use the session ID of the skeleton.
Now you have reduced the number or parts that can be inter-related to only 1 skeleton. A change in the skeleton should easily roll into the entire design. For more complicated designs, you can do the same with sub-assemblies. It can get quite comprehensive, but this level of planning is invaluable in a top-down design approach. Nothing worse than having an error and having no idea on how you need to trace the fault due to a very simple little tweak to the design.
This would be a simple but comprehensive skeleton for this design... a 3-dimension sketch to drive parts and assembly references.
