Propagating Assembly Features to Parts

In a SOLIDWORKS assembly, you have the flexibility to create assembly features. These are features created at the assembly level and only live in the assembly.

Let’s say you create some holes at the assembly level, due to convenience, but those holes need to be drilled when the subcomponent part gets manufactured. There is a simple option we can turn on which will propagate the assembly-level Cut-Extrude feature down to the part, enabling you to detail the holes in the part drawing.

In the PropertyManager of an assembly feature, a Cut-Extrude in our example, expand the Feature Scope section and you’ll see the option to   Propagate features to parts.

When this option is turned on, the assembly feature gets transmitted down to the part.

Please note that assembly feature Cut-Extrude1 is the same as Cut-Extrude2 on the part. That means there is an external reference to the assembly on the part.

Watch this video for more information on external references.