This blog pertains to MicroStation V8i SELECTSeries 1 and later.

When you want to create a saved view, you typically arrange the active view window the way you want to, and then start the Create Saved View tool. But there are cases in which a saved view seed is used to pre-specify certain settings of new saved views. This blog is going to talk about it.

The settings inherited from saved view seeds include, clip volume settings, view attributes and level masks.

There are two instances in which seed saved views are used.

  1. Saved view seed is used when you create a section clip volume by using Fitted Section Clip Volume tools. When you use Fitted Section XY-Plane tool, MicroStation uses the saved view specified by MS_PLANVIEWSEED. When you use Fitted Section YZ-Plane or Fitted Section XZ-Plane tool, MicroStation uses the saved view specified by MS_SECTIONVIEWSEED.
  2. When you create a callout and launch the Create Dynamic View dialog, the saved view seed corresponding to callout type is used. If the callout type is Section Callout, MicroStation uses MS_SECTIONVIEWSEED. For Detail Callout, MS_DETAILVIEWSEED is used. For Elevation Callout, MS_ELEVATIONVIEWSEED is used.

MS_VIEWSEEDFILE: This configuration variable points to the DGNLIB that contains saved view seeds. If it is not defined, MicroStation looks for seed saved views in system DGNLIB (ustation.dgnlib).

MS_PLANVIEWSEED: This configuration variable points to name of plan view seed. If not defined, MicroStation assumes its value of PlanViewSeed, which is delivered in system DGNLIB.

MS_SECTIONVIEWSEED, MS_ELEVATIONVIEWSEED, MS_DETAILVIEWSEED: These configuration variables are similar to MS_PLANVIEWSEED, and pertain to other view types.

Hiding Saved Views in Saved Views Dialog

Since these saved views are in your DGNLIBs, they will naturally show up in the Saved Views dialog. They can potentially clutter the Saved Views dialog, making it hard to find the saved views in your active project. If you want to hide them in Saved Views dialog, you can specify your DGNLIBs in MS_SAVEDVIEW_EXCLUDE_LIBS. By doing this, you will see a DGNLIB’s saved views in the Saved Views dialog only if that DGNLIB is opened as the active file.

If hiding all saved views in your DGNLIBs is too restrictive, you have the choice of hiding specific saved views by naming them in MS_LIBRARY_SAVEDVIEW_FILTER. For example, if all your saved view seeds have a common suffix of “Seed”, you can set MS_LIBRARY_SAVEDVIEW_FILTER to *Seed.