In SOLIDWORKS, design intent refers to the planning as to how the overall model would behave when changes are applied.
Here’s a simple model for demonstration:
In this example, the design for this part is that the Hole Wizard feature must be always centered to the part regardless of any dimension change.
These models shown above are geometrically identical, but the placement of the center hole is assigned differently.
The left uses the Midpoint relationship for the hole placement, the right uses Smart Dimension value of half the current length of the model.
Now, if we resize the original length of 120mm to a new length of 195mm.
These models will no longer be identical to each other, as shown above, where the placement of the holes is now different.
The left model still has the correct placement of the hole, as the placement is assigned as centered regardless the dimension. Where the right model has the hole off-center due to the dimension only cater to the original length for it to be centered.
Thus, the left model is the correct design intent.
In summary, you would want to always take a step back and analyze your design intent carefully before diving into the actual modeling.
This will greatly pay off along the designing process, as changes are always inevitable in any designing process.