In a solidwork assembly-document where a part is used several times - upon selecting a part and making it virtual - all the other same-parts become virtual too. I want to write a small vb.net app which does this job (allowing to make only one component virtual - while the other same-source-parts remain unchanged)

There has been some discussion on making a virtual copy of a component ( https://forum.solidworks.com/message/365183 ).

Reading this thread it seems possible to copy the selected component, edit the component and save it - then one can replace the part reference.

I wonder if someone has come accross the problem I address here ... because I can imagine that in the real world users often have a scenario where a part is used many times in a document and only one part needs to be made virtual.