This paper addresses some issues concerning the update of knowledge- based engineering templates in the computer-aided design field. Our objective is to provide support tools to facilitate and to speed up the update and the update propagation of knowledge templates. The problems we tackle concern the searching of solutions for template issues and the minimisation of the time needed to prop- agate template modifications to their instances. The proposed solutions are based on an issue-based information system. This system is used to ease the collaboration between engineers in order to find and apply solutions about template issues, but also to provide a design rationale solution as templates are evolving complex knowl- edge elements. We also propose a smart grouping approach to reduce the number of check-out/check-in procedures in conjunction with the Product Data Management system in the scope of template updates propagation as it is a time consuming ac- tion. These both tools provide engineers with support that will enhance the template update process in time and in quality.