What happens to the child features when their parent feature is deleted by default?

When the parent feature is deleted in a feature-based modeling environment like Siemens NX, the default behavior is that the child features, which are dependent on the parent, are automatically deleted. This process maintains the integrity of the design because child features often rely on the parameters, geometry, or definitions set by their parent. When the parent is removed, retaining the children would create inconsistencies or invalid geometries, as they would no longer have a valid reference point.

Other aspects of how features interact include the notion of orphan features, which generally occurs in specific modeling contexts. In the default scenario, when the parent feature is deleted, the child features do not simply generate errors or become orphaned; they are removed entirely to maintain the logical sequence of the model. This ensures that the structure of the design remains valid and allows for a cleaner modeling workflow.