Hi, I've moved into a new role where I need to design many unique assemblies. What is the best practice to add holes through multiple parts, then locate fasteners (mainly rivets) to these holes so the quantity is show in a BOM.

From research I have found 3 methods;

1- Use hole wizard in the assembly. Layout all the holes in the hole wizard sketch for that joint/ part. select propagate the hole wizard feature to parts option. Then insert the rivet part and use either a pattern driven or sketch driven component pattern to put a rivet in each hole

2- Make the rivet part a smart component with an appropriate cut extrude feature. Make assembly level sketches with points for each joint/ part. Insert the smart component rivet and use the sketch driven component pattern to put a rivet and hole on each sketch point

3- Similar to option 2 but instead of making the rivet a smart component. Assemble all the rivets then use the hole cavity command to add a hole at each intersection of sheet metal and rivet

My main concerns are;

-When I need to make a slightly different assembly, if I Pack&Go as a starting point, the part external reference may get stuck on the old parts

-Holes not being parametric/ not updating properly after updates

-Time saving and consistency 

Thanks for any input. My previous role I was designing something that would get made many times, so I could afford to use solidworks in not the most efficient way. Now I can see many days of adding rivet holes ahead for me