The Mold or Cast design model usually represents the product designer’s vision of his final product. Typically, the design part geometry contains all necessary design elements that are required for the functioning product, but does not contain the elements that molding or casting technology requires. Usually, the design part is not shrunk, it does not contain all needed drafts and fillets, but it may contain geometry elements that require post-molding or post-casting machining.

The design part geometry is a source for Mold or Cast reference part geometry. The relationship between the design part and reference part depends on the method used to create the reference part.

While assembling a reference part, you can inherit all geometry and feature information from the design part to the reference part. Inheritance allows a one-way associative propagation of geometry and feature data from a design part to a reference part. An inheritance feature begins with its geometry and data identical to the part from which it is derived. You can identify the geometry and feature data that you want to modify on the inherited feature, without changing the original part. Inheritance provides greater freedom to modify the reference part without changing the design part.

You can also copy (merge by reference) design part geometry into the reference part. In this case, only the geometry and layers are copied from the design part. You can apply shrinkage to the reference part, create a draft, round, and other features - all these changes do not affect the design model. However, all changes in the design model are automatically reflected in the reference part.

As an alternative, you can designate a design part to be a Mold or Cast reference part. In this case, they are the same models.

In all cases, using the geometry of a reference model while working in Mold or Cast sets up a parametric relationship between the design model and the mold or cast components. Because of this relationship, when the design model is changed, any associated mold or cast components are updated to reflect the change.