Inheritance features are useful in sheet metal because different factories manufacturing your product may have slight variations in tool shapes. Inheritance enables you to submit the same model design to multiple manufacturers, who in turn use inheritance features to adjust the design data for manufacture in their factory without modifying your design. After you create the feature, you can make changes such as dimension and feature status modifications.

Sheet metal inheritance allows you to merge geometry, add bodies, cut geometry, or intersect geometry from a reference (source) part to your existing (target) sheet metal body or part. Because inheritance is a one-way associate merge, the data moves from the source to the target without physically modifying the design model.

Use the References and Options tabs to include features and properties in the inheritance feature.