Assemblies

Assemblies are also very different in the 3D modelling environment.  Rather than re-drawing or copying the lines representing component parts into an assembly drawing, the assembly is constructed by adding references to component parts and positioning them together.  The assembly itself does not contain any physical data, instead it has a link to component parts and their orientation in space.  While this means that assemblies are automatically updated when their component parts are changed, it does require skilled management of the CAD files to avoid losing the links between the assembly and its component parts.