About Reference Parts

The Mold or Cast reference part usually represents a part that should be molded. The reference part is needed to imprint corresponding geometry on mold or die components.

Typically, the reference part geometry is based on geometry of the design part. Usually the reference part and design part are not identical. The design part does not always contain all necessary design elements that molding or casting technology requires. Namely, the design part is not shrunk, and it does not contain all needed drafts and fillets. Shrinkage and missing design elements are usually created on the reference part.

Sometimes the design part contains the design elements that require post-molding or post-casting machining. In this case, the elements should be changed on the reference part. The reference part can be created in three different ways:

• Inherited—The reference part inherits all geometry and feature information from the design part. You can specify the geometry and the feature data that you want to modify on the inherited part without changing the original part. Inheritance provides greater freedom to modify the reference part without changing the design part.

• Merge by reference—The design part geometry is copied into the reference part. In this case, only the geometry and layers are copied from the design part. It also copies datum plane information from the design model to the reference model. If a layer with one or more datum planes associated with it exists in a design model, the layer, its name, and the datum planes associated with it are copied from the design model to the reference model. The display status of the layer is also copied to the reference model.