As discussed earlier in this section, the type and extent of editing to be carried out in Arbortext IsoDraw CADprocess form another set of criteria to be considered when deciding between importing and placing.

When creating drawings for spare parts catalogs, the editing of 3D data is usually restricted to exploding parts. If 3D data for such drawings is imported, the editing work needs to be repeated each time the source data is updated.

Because placing a file preserves the link to source data even after editing, the edited version – i.e. the drawing – is kept up to date. If a part has been altered in the source file, the new version of that part automatically appears in the drawing while the editing applied to the old version of the part is preserved for the new part. Even if a part is added or removed in the source file, the completed drawing is automatically updated accordingly.

When the basic structure of the assemblies (e.g. machine assemblies) is retained during updates of spare parts catalogs, placing saves time on ongoing editing and automatic updating ensures that the catalog is always up to date.

The design and execution of figures for operating instructions can often vary greatly.

This is due to how much work has gone into designing the figures and how much information on the relevant products has been incorporated into the figures.

If, for example, parts have been cut out in 3D mode (cutting tool) or object elements have been comprehensively edited in some other way, these changes are not applied when updating placed files. In these cases, 3D data should be imported. Furthermore, if colors have been assigned or dimensions added to the completed 2D illustrations, the 3D data should be imported. As explained earlier in this section, the extent to which placed files can be edited in 2D mode is limited.