When we do welded assemblies, we do not want to color each single part as it confuses manufacturers and does not color teh weldments.
We would like to change the appearance of the whole assembly and have that stick so that any assembly that use this one will keep the assembly color.
We tried using derived parts as substitute level of details and coloring those but is was a nightmare as updates weren't automatic and fast.
Basically it would be nice to treat the welded assembly WRT color as a part but dot having to derive.