Oh, I am nowhere near expert with SolidWorks. What I end up with are fairly brittle constructs: I first build components (parameterized), then plug them into assemblies, then add key parameters to the assembly, and finally set up component parameters to track those of the assembly.
BTW, top-down building (e.g. starting from the assembly) has never worked for me. I always end up with an unmaintainable mess — but that could be my poor skills.
I would welcome your thoughts on just how to best hack these exact types of parametric changes in SolidWorks, especially at the component to assembly-level transition. It does seem pretty hopeless, as you say.
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