Best practices for reusing components and simplifying duplication?

[jcwren]

Here's my scenario: I have a manifold (pipe) that has four flanges, each flange has 8 bolt holes, and a mating pipe flange connects to each of the these. Each bolt requires two washers and a nut. It's very tedious to create a join for each and every bolt, two washers, and nut, as there would be 128 (4 flanges * 8 bolt holes * (1 bolts + 2 washers + 1 nut) joins. It seems to would make sense to create one component that's the washer joined to the bolt, and another component that's the washer joined to the nut. Now I can join each of those two components to each bolt hole, resulting in 64 (4 flanges * 8 bolts holes * (1 bolt+washer + 1 washer+nut) joins. This could be reduced slightly by creating a flange component that has the bolt+washer joined already. The bolts, washers, and nuts are all McMaster-Carr parts that have been imported. (*1)

Now suppose I want to change the bolt from a hex head to a socket head. I can import the socket head bolt, add it to the bolt+washer component and join it to the washer, then disable (or remove?) the hex head bolt, and it should update all the parts without losing all the joins, right? Is this a logical workflow?

The second part of the question is when I copy and paste either the individual McMaster-Carr component, or the bolt+washer or the washer+nut component, it's always on the other side of the screen and involves lots of zooming in and out, dragging it near where it needs to go, then finally doing the join. Is there a less painful way of doing this? It would be really nice if the paste command support something like "paste near the cursor" instead of "paste at origin". How do people deal with this issue on large assemblies that have hundreds of screws, etc.?

Lastly, as far as the organization of where the joins are stored in the browser, if the manifold in the example above is a top level component, the joins for the flange on it and the washer+nut component are going to go in the top level Joints folder. If you're not careful doing the joins for the flange on the pipe and bolt+washer joins, they'll wind up there also, but I feel like they really should be in the Joints folder for the flange pipe component so if the pipe flange is reused somewhere else, the joins will come along with it.  Is this a good organization, or is there a better way?

Thanks!

*1 -- I don't want to create a single bolt component with the two washers and nut already joined, because if change the the thickness of the flange, one side or the other of the single bolt component is going to either be embedded in the flange or have a gap.