1. A method implemented in one or more data processing systems, comprising: receiving a geometric model including at least one removal feature having at least one face; designating at least one face as a remove variational face; adding a constraint that refers to the designated face; creating a second object corresponding to the removal feature; modifying the constraint to refer to the second object instead of the removal feature; removing the removal feature; performing a variational edit and solve on the model using the second object in place of the removal feature; and recreating the model according to the variational edit, the recreated model including the removal feature placed according to an updated location of the second object.