External References of an Assembly

An external reference is a feature in the assembly, that has a dependence to another part. An external reference provides limits to how a part model's feature is modeled in an assembly.

As an example, external references of the assembly create:

• Limit a part model feature to another part, for example extrusion to a face of an assembly part.
• Attach the part to the 3D sketch.
• Copy lines into part sketching plane from another part.
• Model profile structures and pipe routings on the 3D sketch, or a plane sketch based on the guide curve.
• Modeling the part in the assembly using the Boolean function.
• Add a weld between parts.
• Add a SmartSnap component to an assembly.

Highlight of parts in the assembly tree

External references related to part features are highlighted in blue in the assembly tree's part label, a profile part as an example .

Solve External References in an Assembly

You can use the Solve function in the assembly to solve all parts in the assembly containing external references or just the selected parts. Additionally, the event history of the parts selected from the assembly is executed from start to finish and the constraints of the 3D sketch are solved.