Converting Civil 3D dwg sheets to dgn

[Jepps]

One of our government (Corps of Engineers) projects requires us to convert our Civil 3D dwg sheet files to Microstation dgn’s. After doing some research ( ), it looks to me like Civil 3D 2010 is capable of doing this without exploding Civil 3D objects or realigning/rescaling the notation. I was able to bring up the Export to DGN dialogue box, so the "Subscription Advantage Pack"; referenced in the article must be installed.

I was able to get a file converted by ignoring the external references, but when I selected the options to translate or bind the xref’s the command terminated without doing anything, or giving me an error message telling me the reason it couldn't complete the command.

This project was originally done in Civil 3D 2008 (version 2007). The sheet files were copied to an independent folder where I've been opening them individually in 2010, attempting to convert them to Microstation V8. The copied sheet files are still referencing the original version 2007 backgrounds. I tried Microstation's batch conversion, but it didn't recognize the Civil 3D objects, and reorientated the annotation to true north instead of aligning and scaling with the view.

I didn't find anything specific to v2010 In searching the discussion boards, but it looks like the civil 3d objects had to be exploded before conversion in previous versions.

[http://bimontherocks.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/11/exporting-autocad-civil-3d-2010-to-dgn.html]

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Eric Edited by: jepps on Apr 22, 2010 4:18 PM

[Anonymous]

Depending on the version of Microstation the Corps is using, they might get
better results if you explode all C3D objects and send your files in DWG.
Microstation can directly read, edit and reference DWG files. They can
convert them to DGN quite easily as well and the resulting files will likely
have fewer quality issues.

I believe the latest version of Microstation, Select Series 1, has enablers
for C3D objects. If the Corps has that version they could directly reference
your C3D DWG file and explode the C3D objects.

Autodesk does not seem to want to play ball with Bentley. Thus we can't
reference DGN files (DGN Overlay is useless) or edit them natively (Autocad
has too many limitations relative to DGN capabilities anyway).

[Jepps]

Neil, thank you for the reply.


I hear what you're saying. We've handled conversion by exploding the Civil 3D objects in the past and we can certainly go about it this way again. The reason we're looking into another solution is mainly because once the Civil 3D objects are exploded, the notation no longer scales or orientates itself to the viewport, or to the scale of the drawing. The rescaling of the text or exploding objects at multiple scales can be very time consuming, and this is a very large job.


We haven't had much luck with annotative text, if that's a solution, but we stopped using annotative text back when it was still full of bugs (v2006?). At any rate, the job wasn't set up with annotative text, so I assume that would be a significant undertaking in and of itself.


The Export to DGN in C3D 2010 seems to be exactly what we're looking for, but it's only working on a limited basis.


Thank you for the heads up on Microstation Select Series 1. Edited by: jepps on Apr 22, 2010 5:29 PM

[Anonymous]

I have never thought about the consequnces of
exploding C3D objects in regards to labels. That would be a mess. If Export to
DGN handles it then that would definitely be a better solution. As CAD products
contiunue to evolve it is becoming more and more difficult to share data between
formats. I think it is time that someone develop an exchange format for DWG/DGN
that works like XML.