In top-down assembly design, one or more features of a part are defined by something in an assembly, such as a layout sketch or the

geometry of another part. Here ,the design intent (sizes of features, placement of components in the assembly, etc.) comes from the top (the assembly) and moves down (into the parts) For example, when creating a locating pin on a plastic part using the Extrude command, you might choose the Up to Surface option and select the bottom of a circuit board (a different part). This selection would make the locating pin exactly long enough to touch the board, even if the board were moved in a future design change. Thus the length of the pin is defined in the assembly, not by a static dimension in the part. An entire assembly can be designed from the top down as well, by first building alayout sketch that defines component locations, key dimensions, etc. Then build 3D parts using one of the methods above, so the 3D parts follow the sketch for their size and location.