Keeping drawing dims from dangling

How do you experts keep your drawings from losing associativity with the
model? Sometimes when I'm playing with my model after I've finished a
drawing, I'll suppress some features for some reason and then unsuppress
them, and my drawing will have some dangling dimensions that I have to
repair. Do I create a "drawing only" configuration and only play with other
configs? Better ideas?

 

Dangling dims aren't always possible to avoid. They are lost when you
remove a surface instead of moving it. A few things to help you keep
your dims. If you go point to point it is a bit easier to loose the
correct dimension for example if you have a box and dimension point to
point then you decide to add fillets into the model. Now your
dimensions may have become dangling. If you select the edge instead of
point to point your dimension may now show from arc start to arc start.
If you select the two ends "Edge to Edge" and then add the fillet your
dimension should stay put.

If you have a bar and dimension it's length edge to edge and then add a
cut feature making the bar shorter you now will lose the association of
the length dimension because there is a new edge.

If you do the same but dimension using the long edge instead of edge to
edge your dimension will stay because the edge hasn't changed.

If you shorten the bar by editing the features that are there without
adding features you should never lose the association because you
aren't removing surfaces and adding new ones you are just moving them.

In short avoid removing edges, surfaces and points when changing a
part. This will also help with assembly mates breaking because the
entity used to create the mate is gone. At times it is imposible to
avoid this. In these cases try to reattach the dimensions if possible
if not you are stuck recreating them. As I understand you can drag the
ends of drawing dims to new features in SW 2005 much more consistently
than in previous releases. Another thing you can do is Insert Model
Items. These dimensions will stay a bit more consistently but they
come with their own draw backs. I don't use them often.

Corey