I feel that the Solidworks help documentation on "Multibody Parts Versus Assemblies" is a bit short.

Does anyone have any advice or reasons for using one method over the other? I'm referring in particular to derived parts i.e. shared features being derived in the mother assembly or shared features being derived before assembly insertion (via multibody parts). I can see that using multibody parts when a single part mates to two different parts is problematic.

I'm working on a design that has only six to seven parts total, which all mate together in some shape or form. From the outset of the design is it better to be using assemblies or multibody parts to transfer geometry between different parts? I'm quite fond of inserting a base part into a new part model and then deleting the body once I've derived sufficient information from it.

We're making lots of changes based on feedback from prototypes and testing. Thus my models are unfortunately "breaking"***  often when I change the geometry so much that all the planning in the world couldn't take those changes into account. What method do people find to be more robust and easier to debug when red crosses start popping up, an assembly or multibody parts?

Is one of the methods preferred when the size of parts increases?

*** Does the solidworks community have an adjective for when your models become nothing but big messes of red crosses?

Thanks for any advice,

Steve