Assembly Design > Top Down Design > Data Sharing > Copy and Publish Geometry Features > Copy Geometry Features > External Dependency of Copy Geometry Features
  
External Dependency of Copy Geometry Features
The following rules apply to external Copy Geometry features.
Selecting References
You create the dependency by selecting references, that is, explicitly copying geometry, from one component into another as a Copy Geometry feature.
You select all references for a single Copy Geometry feature from the same component.
You can reference all geometry, existing Copy Geometry and Publish Geometry features.
Reference status information is available in the Model Tree. Copy Geometry features can have a Copied Ref status of Active, Frozen, Suppressed, Missing, or Independent.
Copying Geometry from the Parent Component
When the parent component is not in session, the geometry copied by the Copy Geometry feature remains frozen while the parent component is unavailable.
You can control the behavior of Copy Geometry features when the parent component is in session but some of the referenced entities are missing. When parent geometry that was copied is missing (deleted or suppressed) a Copy Geometry set to Automatic Update the feature fails regeneration. However, you can prevent copy geometry features from failing when a reference is missing. If you set the configuration file option fail_ref_copy_when_missing_orig to no, during regeneration the system automatically freezes any copied geometry for which the original is missing, preventing the Copy Geometry feature from failing.
Using Update Control Options
You can change the update of an individual Copy Geometry feature and switch easily between update states using the Update Control options. Also use the Manual Update or No Dependency options to stop feature update for improved regeneration performance.
Using Copied Geometry References
Geometry is available after it is selected as a reference. The geometry appears relative to the rest of the part’s geometry, as it did in the context of the assembly where the geometry was selected.
Copied reference information includes geometry, entity names, colors, line styles, and layer information.
Copy Geometry features create external dependencies and are not allowed in start models.
Viewing Status and Parent Information
View parent information about a model that contains a Copy Geometry feature in the Global Reference Viewer.