Linking parts?

I am relatively new to SW and would like to know if there is a way to link parts outside of an assembly?  Say a certain parts starts as a forging and then is machined.  I would like the machined part to be drawn from the forging but saved as a different file and allow a link between the two.   That way if a part 1 (forging) is changed we will see the change in part 2 (machined part).  Does anyone have any experience with a set up like this?  I would also like to be able to make multiple machined parts from one forging.

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