Consider this approach,
Make a board HMR particle board with one ABS edge (typical), I choose a vertical standing board, painted internal edges with particle board, hid (can delete) the front edge surface, added a group for the strip, referenced its material to the parent (parent! is very important here as the board will change names with the instance changes)
Then arranged boards to create the shell (flip for right and opposites, this assures same internal surfaces for any special treatment, say a DC hole cutter for hinges, hardware etc…these save having to write code for each unit )
I then created a backing board of 3mm MDF to attache to rear, (a descale added, look up scaler in forum, the insert edge strip performs the same function in the particle board as well )
Now for any imported DC, when the instance name is changed the option and attribute headers will follow suit provided the “Name” attribute in the info section is not used (one can use a reference to _name instead) or the headers not manually altered.
So you can save a lot of repetitive work! that is reusing the same “basic” board and name the instances, just like on the factory floor, cut the sheet up, pencil the parts.
I did add a few attributes for a report, it is best to use custom attributes rather than the standard lenxyz discription, as this will report all the junk as well, whereas custom attributes can be specific to the report you require and the rest of the model attributes ignored
HMR 16mm ABS Melamine E1L.skp (26.5 KB)
MDF 3mm Melamine Backing.skp (73.3 KB)
carcass.skp (188.2 KB)
After importing the carcass, use the instance name for unit 1…N
Now if need to edit outside the file of the original then replace any reference to the parent with parent! like say I wanted to add a shelf in my carcass DC, my best option would be to work with the original carcass DC in my products file (if it was to be a variant, then I would make it unique and all its subs unique in the presence of that DC, this variant would then remain in my DC products file with the rest, a right saveas would then of it would be sent to the appropriate working folders) , the other option with using the generic parent! has the draw back of having then to type rather than clicking in, with no automatic updates when changing an attribute name…