Creating Intent Surfaces in an Assembly
You can define a set of intent surfaces in an assembly, termed an Intent Surface (In Context), to use as a reference for annotations or appearance operations. The set can contain multiple surfaces from different components at different levels in the assembly. Follow the steps below to create a set of intent surfaces.
1. In an open assembly, click > > 
Reference. The Datum Reference dialog box opens.
Reference. The Datum Reference dialog box opens.2. 
Intent Surface is selected from the Type list.
Intent Surface is selected from the Type list.3. Set the reference scope to select surfaces in the assembly.
◦ Local— You can select surfaces only from the assembly model that contains the reference feature.
◦ In Context—You can select surfaces from the assembly model that contains the feature and from other assembly components in the active assembly. References to upper-level assemblies or components outside of the owner assembly are not allowed.
4. To name the intent surface feature, click the Define intent name checkbox under Intent Name. A prefix and an instance are populated in the boxes.
5. Select surfaces or other intent surfaces from the assembly components. You can select surfaces from multiple parts. When you explicitly set the selection filter to Part, you can use box selection to select multiple parts.
6. Click OK. A new reference feature appears in the Model Tree. Click the Related Link below for information on setting other options in the reference feature.
Limitations of Datum Reference Features in Assembly
• Datum Reference features in Assembly currently only supports Intent Surface and Intent Surface (In Context).
• Using Intent Surfaces of the type In Context as a reference is currently supported only by other Datum Reference features, Annotation features, and the Appearance (color) tool.
• Copy and Paste Special are not supported in the assembly environment for creating an In Context Intent Surface feature. You cannot copy and paste an assembly level datum reference feature into a part.
• There is limited support for Datum Reference features in the assembly in the context of simplified representations when search queries are saved to the feature.
• The creation of Datum Reference features in assembly is not supported in all assembly environments, for example, Simulation. It is supported in Assembly and NC.
• On demand retrieval is only triggered for explicitly selected components, but not for general search query results saved to the feature.