I'd like to know if it's at all possible to overwrite a PDM part without changing the original properties.

An example: we have a Part in production and we want to update it but first we have to test a few prototypes. I create the prototypes, either from the original document or from ground up, and once we have chosen one we want to overwrite the original Part with a new revision but without having to rework it.

Therefore it should be easiest to add a revision, check the part out, overwrite with the prototype, save and check in. This however overwrites any properties, and therefore the history (revision, creator, Ident number etc), of the original with whatever the prototype had. I'd like to know if there's a way of copying the features without any of the properties and history being overwritten.