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So you got a MicroStation V8 cell library and you've now got to turn them into AutoCAD blocks. What do you do? Read along and learn a nifty little trick in this short article.
The image below shows the contents of the delivered remodel cell library that's found in the ...\Workspace\system\cell\... folder. Our task is to export this file so that each cell becomes an AutoCAD block. Let's do it!
First thing to do is to open the cell library as your active design file. If this is the first time you've done this, it may seem a bit freaky and suggest that you read Frank Conforti's article titled It's a cell! It's a design file! No! It's a model!. Although this is optional, you can also see or verify that each cell is a model by opening the Models dialog. To do so, choose one of the following actions:
Alrighty, once you're in the cell library select File > Save As... and set the Select Format To Save: to AutoCAD Drawing Files and poke on the Options button.
In the Save As DWG/DXF Options box, navigate to the General tab and expand the Advanced option. Ensure that Non-Default Design Models is set to Create Separate Files which just so happens to be the default.
Then navigate to the Filter tab, click on the Models button and select the cells you want to export. Once you've confirmed your settings, click OK in the Save As dialog and let 'er rip! MicroStation V8 will extract each model into a separate DWG file which is exactly what you wanted! Note that that each resulting DWG file will be prepended with the name of the source cell library.