Best ways to reuse an existing design

Creating a design from scratch is an old story now. These days, a design is usually modified from a reference or legacy design. This requires reuse of either schematic sheets, blocks, or a complete design. With global teams, different functions/blocks of the schematic design and their associated layout modules are captured by multiple teams.

No designer would like to redraw the circuit; they would rather merge the existing functional designs into the master design seamlessly. This could create a new set of challenges such as an undesired sequence of reference designators. Other than this, you might have come across many other challenges. Do share your experiences with the community.

What is your preferred approach in such situations?

1. Import schematic sheets in the main design and reassign refdes or re-annotate the design.
2. Create hierarchical blocks with a REF DES PATTERN and import the block and its associated layout modules in the main design.
3. Any other method?

We look forward to hearing from you.