Lately I've been seeing a lot of people modeling with parts in parts.

Part in Part = When a piece of hardware, such as a pin, or a pem nut, is inserted as a "part in part" to a block or sheet metal part.

Inserting a Part into Another Part​

USE CASE

It's like this, you have a part (solid model with pressed pins or sheet metal model with pem inserts) that will be contract manufactured with some kind of pressed insert. Documentation wise, the part will be ordered and delivered as 1 part, with a drawing that depicts dimensions and inserts. The inserts themselves will never be stocked, thus will never be ordered by themselves and do not need there own internal part number.

The point, is to keep the model references clean, with a clear association of 1 p/n to 1 part to 1 drawing. (2 files total)

Obviously, modeling wise, both parts can be placed in an assembly; and a drawing created for the assembly with a single p/n.

This results in 4 electronic files to document 1 p/n:

• 1 Drawing (Named as P/N)
• 1 Assembly (Named as P/N)
• 2 Parts (Named as P/N-01 & P/N-02)

I WANT YOUR OPINION!

1. Tell me why you are in favor, or not, for using the part in part method of modeling.
2. If not in favor, tell me what you do to address the described use case above.
3. Please list Pros/Cons to any method you are arguing for or against.