C3D 2010 - Export proxy graphics to dgn

[RodWing]

I have a client that wants MicroStation .dgn files from Civil 3D. I've tried doing the Export DGN but the C3D objects do not get exported. I've set the proxygraphics variable = 1 and verified that it works exporting to an ACAD 2004 .dwg file.

I can open the 2004 version .dwg in C3D 2010 and export to .dgn with the proxy graphics, but I would rather not have to go through those extra steps. Is there some other setting I'm missing that enables these objects to be written to a dgn?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

As far as I know, Microstation does not have object
enablers for C3D objects. You might try posting to the Bentley Communities
forums.

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">

<RodWing> wrote in message
href="news:6178841@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6178841@discussion.autodesk.com...

I
have a client that wants MicroStation .dgn files from Civil 3D. I've tried
doing the Export DGN but the C3D objects do not get exported. I've set the
proxygraphics variable = 1 and verified that it works exporting to an ACAD
2004 .dwg file. I can open the 2004 version .dwg in C3D 2010 and export to
.dgn with the proxy graphics, but I would rather not have to go through those
extra steps. Is there some other setting I'm missing that enables these
objects to be written to a dgn? Thanks

[mike.barkasi]

Neil is correct the current Microstation V8i release does not contain the "Object enablers" needed to view the Civil3D graphics.. Come to think of it they need to be installed in AutoCad also to view the C3D Dwg. So I wonder does that mean the Dwg in C3D is not the same as a Dwg in AutoCAD?...

Anyway... I would suggest exporting your C3D drawing to an AutoCAD Dwg. If I was the recipient I would ask for a Dwg (with the C3D graphics) and allow Microstation to do the conversion, as the interoperability on the Bentley end is more advanced.

Additionally, I would ask for surfaces exported to land XML, Alignments and Profiles also exported to XML. This way the surfaces and geometry can easily be reproduced.

Cheers,

Michael Barkasi
Bentley Civil
Professional Services

[Civil3DReminders]

Having recently had experience saving Civil 3D to dgn, the most problems I had were with non Civil 3D objects. A sub had done some interesting things with nested xref's and Microstation couldn't handle it. Autodesk handled it though, so much for Bentley being more advanced.

[GaryElswick5627]

Civil3.....

Can't say I have had Microstation go 4 paws to the wind on me.....

[mike.barkasi]

To say there are no facits of the other program (either AutoCad or Microstation) that are not supported would be a mistake. However I am not familiar with a "Nested reference" and would not know why MS would not be able to use it as MS has been using references since the 1980s . IMHO this inability could be user error or could be the result of using an older version of MS and a newer version of AC.

Microstation contains the ability to open and write to Dwg from R-11 to the current release (2010 with the upcoming MS SP update) and has been doing this since 2001. It will shortly include the very same libraries used in true Dwg, making the files virtually undistinguishable. If needed it can also save to these various versions.

Features such as AutoCad DWF and AutoCad Spreadsheets are not supported, as MS ability to work with these leaders (Adobe and Microsoft office etc.) exceeds the functionality gained by using these AutoCad developed features or the functionality AutoCad itself currently provides in these areas.(IE can AutoCad produce a 3D pdf?)

On the bright side, I recently worked with 2010 AC and it is "looking" more like Microstation all the time 😉

Mike Barkasi
Bentley Civil
Professional Services Edited by: mike.barkasi@bentley.com on May 8, 2009 12:46 PM

[Anonymous]

That statement is not 100% true especially in this
forum. MS cannot (as far as I understand) open a Civil 3D drawing and you
start working in it . The Civil 3D-specific things (corridors, surfaces,
parcels, etc.) are either ignored or uneditable - correct? Just asking the
question.

--
Rick Graham
Twitter: C3D_RickGraham

style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">

<
href="mailto:mike.barkasi@bentley.com">mike.barkasi@bentley.com> wrote
in message
href="news:6179618@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6179618@discussion.autodesk.com...

Microstation contains the ability to open and write to Dwg from R-11 to the
current release (2010 with the upcoming MS SP update) and has been doing this
since 2001....Mike Barkasi Bentley Civil Professional Services Edited by:
mike.barkasi@bentley.com on May 8, 2009 12:46 PM

[mike.barkasi]

Hi Rick

You are correct. However I did not Say Civil 3D. I said AutoCAD. Prox Graphics are not supported by either AutoCAD or Microstation without the enablers.

Interestingly though, the agreement with Autodesk concerning library exchange also includes those enablers (It is my understanding so someone correct me if Im wrong). If this is the case perhaps somewhere down the road these entities will also be supported.

Mike

[Anonymous]

Hi Mike,

I know you did not say Civil 3D, however this DG is
the Civil 3D group and I just wanted to 'level the playing field'
;-)

--
Rick Graham
Twitter: C3D_RickGraham

style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">

<
href="mailto:Mike.barkasi@bentley.com">Mike.barkasi@bentley.com> wrote
in message
href="news:6179631@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6179631@discussion.autodesk.com...

Hi
Rick You are correct. However I did not Say Civil 3D. I said AutoCAD. Prox
Graphics are not supported by either AutoCAD or Microstation without the
enablers. Interestingly though, the agreement with Autodesk concerning library
exchange also includes those enablers (It is my understanding so someone
correct me if Im wrong). If this is the case perhaps somewhere down the road
these entities will also be supported. Mike

[Civil3DReminders]

I just haven't been impressed with MS or InRoads. I kept hearing how it doesn't matter what version you use the data will work. Get v7 of MS/InRoads installled on my machine, get a 3rd party manual from IT for that whole number product (I don't recall what number it was), start doing the tutorials and they start to not be doable. It turns out between one of the builds for inroads Bentley decided to change how things where stored/built so using the tutorial became impossible. Contacting a certain Bentley representative was not helpful in figuring it out, he didn't seem to know anything about this change. So I try to do the tutorials that come with the program, can't find them on the system. Takes me about an hour to find on the Bentley site that they didn't ship it with that release, I guess they didn't finish it and shipped the product anyways, and a link was provided to the data in the DG post. I found that InRoads was difficult to use and not intuitive and didn't have a pleasent experience learning it, and I like learning new things and up for change in software.

PowerCivil is out since you can't really get it for free like you could with LDT to Civil 3D. Which is probably the only reason I'm using Civil 3D, because the transition was nearly free from a software buying standpoint.

But hey I keep getting told Microstation doesn't have any oporability problems, my experience says otherwise.

[mike.barkasi]

Funny you are complaining (and comparing) about Microstation V7 (and Inroads of the same erra) a piece of software that is at a minimum of 9 years old. It is understandable that an 8 year old software will not interoperate efficiently with a current release. Please take notice is has not been retired, and the current versions of the software V8i will still natively write to the V7 version without conversion.

Additionally at that point (9 yrs ago) Inroads was not even owned by Bentley Systems.

Compare the interop between AC 2000 and the current release 2010.

[Civil3DReminders]

Hey, it's not my fault Bentley couldn't come up with a product, until recently, that would want to make Caltrans update to v8 🙂

[Anonymous]

I'm curious, what did the sub do with nested XREF's
the ustn couldn't handle?

Actually Microstation provides vastly superior
referencing capabilities over ACAD. Among those capabilities:

Control reference display order in reference
manager

Control depth of nesting (from none to 99
levels)

Apply layer display settings independently of the
source files (unlike VISRETAIN, the overrides can apply to nested
refs).

Override overrides (ie polylines with widths
applied can be over ridden. Same for colors, linetypes, linetypes,
etc.)

Self referencing (reference your DWG into
itself..it comes into play with multiple model spaces in ustn, but perhaps other
scenarios as well)

<Civil3DReminders> wrote in message
href="news:6179500@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6179500@discussion.autodesk.com...

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Having
recently had experience saving Civil 3D to dgn, the most problems I had were
with non Civil 3D objects. A sub had done some interesting things with nested
xref's and Microstation couldn't handle it. Autodesk handled it though, so
much for Bentley being more advanced.

[Anonymous]

To clarify how enablers work in ACAD, if a drawing
containing C3D objects is opened in vanilla Autocad, those objects
will display as empty rectangles. If the object enalers are installed, the
C3D objects will display as proxy graphics but they cannot be edited. However,
the user does have the ability to change the display of those objects, such as
controling layer display or color and linetype settings. If the C3D dwg is
opened in Microstation the objects display as empty rectangles and cannot
be manipulated at all (of course since there are no enablers that is to be
expected).

<
href="mailto:Mike.barkasi@bentley.com">Mike.barkasi@bentley.com> wrote in
message
href="news:6179631@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6179631@discussion.autodesk.com...

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Hi
Rick You are correct. However I did not Say Civil 3D. I said AutoCAD. Prox
Graphics are not supported by either AutoCAD or Microstation without the
enablers. Interestingly though, the agreement with Autodesk concerning library
exchange also includes those enablers (It is my understanding so someone
correct me if Im wrong). If this is the case perhaps somewhere down the road
these entities will also be supported. Mike

[Anonymous]

Mike,

As far as I have been able to determine, Autocad
cannot produce 3D PDF files out of the box as of the 2010 release. If anyone
knows otherwise it would be good to know.

You refer to "Autocad spreadsheets". Do you mean
table objects? If so then there are some distinct advantages to Autocad's table
objects vs. links to Excel spreadsheets. Civil 3D for example can create dynamic
tables that update when a design changes. This is superior to having to manually
update a spreadsheet which in turn updates a linked table in a DGN. On the other
hand there are many advantages to using a spreadsheet such as the ability to
perform complex calculations and other capabilities available in the Excel
environment, so it a trade off with benefits depending on the role of the table.
I haven't explored Autocad's current capabilities with regards to linked
spreadsheets but in the past it was done via OLE which had page size
limitations and other problems so many users avoided using OLE links to
spreadheeets (aside from 3rd Party add ons to overcome the deficiencies).
It may be improved now though. If so then ACAD would have the best of both
options. Perhaps somone could enlighten me in this regard as well.

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">

<
href="mailto:Mike.barkasi@bentley.com">Mike.barkasi@bentley.com> wrote
in message
href="news:6179618@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6179618@discussion.autodesk.com...

To
say there are no facits of the other program (either AutoCad or Microstation)
that are not supported would be a mistake. However I am not familiar with a
"Nested reference" and would not know why MS would not be able to use it as MS
has been using references since the 1980s . IMHO this inability could be user
error or could be the result of using an older version of MS and a newer
version of AC. Microstation contains the ability to open and write to Dwg from
R-11 to the current release (2010 with the upcoming MS SP update) and has been
doing this since 2001. It will shortly include the very same libraries used in
true Dwg, making the files virtually undistinguishable. If needed it can also
save to these various versions. Features such as AutoCad DWF and AutoCad
Spreadsheets are not supported, as MS ability to work with these leaders
(Adobe and Microsoft office etc.) exceeds the functionality gained by using
these AutoCad developed features or the functionality AutoCad itself currently
provides in these areas.(IE can AutoCad produce a 3D pdf?) On the bright side,
I recently worked with 2010 AC and it is "looking" more like Microstation all
the time 😉 Mike Barkasi Bentley Civil Professional Services Edited by:
mike.barkasi@bentley.com on May 8, 2009 12:46 PM

[Anonymous]

I should mention one big advantage we gain from the
Autocad Table object is the ability to include CAD graphics in the table.
Thus for example we can use a table to create a legend and add blocks (cells) to
the table for the legend symbols. The table and cells expand and shrink to
accomodate the symbols and text. As far as I know Microstation has no way to do
this and it can't be done in Excel.

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">

"neilw" <nwilsonATsec-landmgtDOTcom> wrote in message
href="news:6181068@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6181068@discussion.autodesk.com...

Mike,

As far as I have been able to determine, Autocad
cannot produce 3D PDF files out of the box as of the 2010 release. If anyone
knows otherwise it would be good to know.

You refer to "Autocad spreadsheets". Do you mean
table objects? If so then there are some distinct advantages to Autocad's
table objects vs. links to Excel spreadsheets. Civil 3D for example can create
dynamic tables that update when a design changes. This is superior to having
to manually update a spreadsheet which in turn updates a linked table in a
DGN. On the other hand there are many advantages to using a spreadsheet such
as the ability to perform complex calculations and other capabilities
available in the Excel environment, so it a trade off with benefits depending
on the role of the table. I haven't explored Autocad's current capabilities
with regards to linked spreadsheets but in the past it was done via OLE
which had page size limitations and other problems so many users avoided using
OLE links to spreadheeets (aside from 3rd Party add ons to overcome the
deficiencies). It may be improved now though. If so then ACAD would have the
best of both options. Perhaps somone could enlighten me in this regard as
well.

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">

<
href="mailto:Mike.barkasi@bentley.com">Mike.barkasi@bentley.com>
wrote in message
href="news:6179618@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6179618@discussion.autodesk.com...

To
say there are no facits of the other program (either AutoCad or
Microstation) that are not supported would be a mistake. However I am not
familiar with a "Nested reference" and would not know why MS would not be
able to use it as MS has been using references since the 1980s . IMHO this
inability could be user error or could be the result of using an older
version of MS and a newer version of AC. Microstation contains the ability
to open and write to Dwg from R-11 to the current release (2010 with the
upcoming MS SP update) and has been doing this since 2001. It will shortly
include the very same libraries used in true Dwg, making the files virtually
undistinguishable. If needed it can also save to these various versions.
Features such as AutoCad DWF and AutoCad Spreadsheets are not supported, as
MS ability to work with these leaders (Adobe and Microsoft office etc.)
exceeds the functionality gained by using these AutoCad developed features
or the functionality AutoCad itself currently provides in these areas.(IE
can AutoCad produce a 3D pdf?) On the bright side, I recently worked with
2010 AC and it is "looking" more like Microstation all the time 😉 Mike
Barkasi Bentley Civil Professional Services Edited by:
mike.barkasi@bentley.com on May 8, 2009 12:46
PM

[ken.daugherty]

Hi my name is Ken and currently trying to export an Auto Cad dwg file a dgn file and for my client works in Microstaion dgn but this is my first time doing this and I watched some videos on YouTube and it doesn't seem to work, now the orginal file is about 13mb (kind of large I know) but when I export to dgn the file is only about 8mb and it has missing info (ex. lines and text) and the original file has some pdf's attached to it but not if that is the problem because of my lack of experience. any help would help be greatly appreciated. thanks