Insert vs Derive Use Cases
Quote from an article written by John Helfen,
What are the main differences between Insert Derive and External Components?
Insert Derive allows you to be selective about the content that is referenced. In fact, you can select any or all objects from any or all components in a source design to reference in the destination design. With External Component insert, you must insert everything in the source design as a whole component into the destination assembly.
Insert Derive does not allow you to edit any of the features that define the derived objects. You can only add additional features to the derived objects and the features are isolated to the destination design. With External Components, you can use Edit In Place (EIP) to make edits to all features and sub-components that define the inserted component, while in the context of the destination assembly. These edits are saved in the inserted component file and are propagated to all other assemblies where the component is used. EIP in not enabled for Derive features.
External Components allow multiple users to collaborate in an assembly by creating and editing different external components concurrently. Insert Derive makes the derived objects an integral part of the destination design, so a user making changes to the derived objects must reserve the destination design and those changes are always saved as a new version of the destination design.
Both Insert Derive and External Components allow "breaking the link". Break Link on a Derive converts all features (except Joints) to Base Bodies so they cannot be parametrically edited. Assembly hierarchy of derived components are maintained in the browser. Break Link on an External Component converts it to an Internal Component and maintains all feature intelligence that defines the component(s). Those features can be parametrically edited in the destination (assuming parametric history is turned On). Assembly Hierarchy is maintained in the browser.
Evan Gu
Inventor/Fusion QA Engineer
