Thanks Grant, But if I can't show some sort of cost advantage to separating the model and drawing, then my company will not even consider changing it's current procedures (I wouldn't either).
I do understand that each separated file would have it's own privledges and ownership, but I don't envision the two being worked on at the same time. In most cases, the model is changed prior to the drawing being updated.
I performed a little test to see if having the drawing and model together would impact downstream users as far as performance. I created a new tooling file for example, and added the model to the tooling file with just the model showing in the reference set. I noticed no problems at all, the drawing does not load.
I guess if you start doing this from day one, It would be the way to go, but changing to this method mid-stream doesn't make much sense.