NWCOUT vs Append: Let the battle begin...

[kjohnston]

When appending a MicroStation v8i dgn directly into Navisworks Manage 2014, there are certain elements that do not display correctly.  However, if I utilize the NWCOUT command within MicroStation, then append the resulting nwc file into our Navis model, everything displays fine.  We're noticing this issue more and more with complex 3D files from other programs (like STEP, MicroStation, SmartPlant, etc) that are not native to the Autodesk family of products.

Question 1: Are there settings within Navis or the Navis exporters that control how it reads a pre-defined nwc vs the appended file's #.nwc?

Question 2: What is your preference when appending files from other programs into Navis and why?

Any suggestions or comments are appreciated!

Kurt Johnston

[Patrick_Aps_9121]

This completely depends on which program the data come from. If is is not made by MicroStation, but with a vertical on top of MicroStation (AutoPlant, OpenPlant, etc) then the best option is to make the NWCout.

The best solution in the long run for all the verticals on top of MicroStation would be that Navisworks would be able to load iModels correctly. Then any apllication would export an iModel (this functionaltiy is always embedded in a vertical) and that would skip the need for installing NW converters on top of MicroStation verticals.

For STEP and IGES I switched over to use AutoCAD 2015 to get them converted, rather than MicroStation v8i.

[dgorsman]

I rarely use APPEND, instead using MERGE to help handle any duplicates.  It does require everything to be reloaded when a refresh is done, but it usually saves time when there are many different duplicate objects to load.