Trying to get away from iLogic Design Copy, want suggestions

[FiniteMatt]

For our previous automation projects, we've had to use iLogic Design Copy to save a new copy and do... well exactly what iLogic Design Copy is supposed to do. But now we're wanting to get into smarter, more self contained modules. I'm slowly wrapping my mind around the API stuff, and I can do it all individually (save copies of files, create new files, etc)..., but I'm having a hard time figuring out a good workflow, and figuring out what to use, if anything, in terms of iParts, multibody parts that get split up in new files, iCopy parts, assembly features...

The module assembles tanks composed of side wall rings with varying thickness, and height. Our old modules went for the brute force method: creating extra part files that may or maynot be used. Since its possible (though unlikely) to have 30+ different unique rings, this isn't really attractive. We're still trying to nail down the work flow, but my greatest stumbling block at the moment is being able to reliably use a base part and modify it, copy new versions, then replace existing instances. We want it to check previously entered rings for a match, and upon no match, make a new file copy and use it. But I also don't want it to just create copies everytime a user enters new values, possibly creating a garbage file thats not used.

Right now this is all in iLogic, but using external applications or libraries is definitely a possibility. 

I still have a lot of planning and layout work to do, so I know this isn't terribly specific, but its friday, and I had 10 minutes left, so I thought I'd put this out there over the weekend and see if anyone has had experience, or any tips to pass along.