Projects vary. Projects should be setup to ensure that all files conform to the Project Needs.
Properly Setting Up your Projects maximizes interoperability and flexibility and minimizes the "back up" occasions.
Note that many agencies have specific recommendations in meeting their requirements. Be sure that you have reviewed their requirements.
Seed files are essentially starter or "template" files that get copied as starters for other files. The settings in seed files are copied to files created from them.
Multiple seed files can be created for different purposes. Roadway Projects have a series of seed files, including design model seed files and seed files that are required for automatic sheet creation.
Every project that gets built, every object surveyed can be located on the planet by some system. There are hundreds of standards, but they all ultimately define a coordinate system that maps out onto the Earth. They are called Geographic Coordinate Systems (GCS).
Generally your state or other municipality recommends/requires a specific GCS to locate your data "in the real world".
The design model seed files should be assigned an appropriate Geographic Coordinate Systems (GCS) so that all data model files will be geospatially consistent with your client's system.
One benefit of building your data consistent with a GCS is that MicroStation automatically translates between files with different GCSs. If files with spatial data are assigned any proper GCS, correct referencing is automatic.
The most immediate example of the automatic benefits of assigning a GCS to your project files: Bing Satellite Imagery with the flip of a toggle. It doesn't matter what GCS Bing uses, it gets translated so that the imagery shows up properly.
Like most settings, setting them up in an appropriate seed file facilitates project-wide consistency. Here is a quick video of how GCS works in files: GCS File Setting
Bentley recommends a federated file setup: breaking the project into a hierarchy of design files segregated by function, phase and other logic to facilitate intuitive project management.
In legacy systems there was a significant loss of functionality if data was in reference file versus being in the active file. CONNECT architecture eliminates that loss; manage your project data at file-level, logically. Files can be segregated by discipline, phasing, or any business or engineering reason.
There are multiple ways to attach files that themselves have reference files.
There are multiple advantages to using the Live Nesting option. The primary - the gamechanger - is that if a file is referenced into a file that is live nested. such as a container file (see below), this file becomes visible to all files referencing the (container) file.
For example, if, late in the project, a UndergroundUtilities.dgn file is added to the project container file, any file Live Referencing the project container file - which should be most project files - will now see that UndergroundUtilities.dgn contents - automatically.
There is a series of videos in the OpenRoads Best Practices Learning Path, in the Project Management course, that detail some of the other features of Live Nesting
Container files are essentially "empty" files that reference other files.
Container files might be segregated (federated) by type. For example, you might have a Geometry_container.dgn which references all the individual geometry files (mainlines, cross streets, ramps, right-of-way, etc.). A utilities container file would reference all the existing utilities and, if desired, proposed utilities.
Used in seed files and in conjunction with Live Nesting, files created at any point in a project timeline will automatically have access to all the relevant project files, regardless of when files are added to the container files.
Any file or new file created from a seed file Live Referencing the utilities container file, for example, will automatically get any new file added to that container file. It is not uncommon in a project for additional utilities to be "found" or created. Adding a new file, say from the water department, to the utilities container file will have those utilities automatically available to all files. This can identify conflicts early in the process.
Having a mechanism to keep all project files "complete" automatically throughout the project design lifecycle facilitates management, increases confidence and enhances quality.
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