Unable to zoom in my file (Minimum Window) --- is there any workaround?

There is a minimum zoom limit in terms of the file's Units of Resolution.

The problem here is that the sheet pile component in the DWG measures 1.433mm maximum width. How big is it supposed to be?

It is more or less 1.50m (at least the file was set like that in AutoCAD) but maybe Aecosim does recognize it as that.

I know this is not the way to go, but still I do not understand how can the zoom level be finite. This is not the case in other CAD software. If I work with a seed file this would not happen (and I can copy the sheet pile there and will work). I would have wanted to fix the file but it seems that it is not possible.

Presumably the wrong scale was set when the profile was originally imported from AutoCAD? If the scale factor in this case is 1000, suggesting this could have come about if the wrong units were specified on import.

The DGN file you have sent has a resolution of 10,000 UOR/m so is not suitable for working with tiny things, in that file 1 UOR = 0.1mm so it is easy to reach minimum zoom with an object 1.433 mm wide. If the object was the correct size this would not crop up.

AECOsim uses seed files with a resolution of 1000 UOR/mm to allow it to handle the detail required by building design.

MicroStation has a vast design plane for 2D operations that allows it to be used for large scale planning/mapping uses as well as the detailed design of buildings, whereas some other applications have a limited design space. If the design plane that we use was shrunk down to say a 25km cube, the zoom in might seem infinite but would eventually hit minimum (it's limited by the 19 decimal places available to Windows floating point arithmetic). This is why the resolution can be changed per file and the available units of measurement that can be made available (but are not shown by default) range from Angstroms to Parsecs.

When using AECOsim it is important to understand the essentials of resolution and the Solids Working Area, please see Setting Up in the Real World or "Where do we model?" for more details on that.

You could continue to use the file in it's current state with new models by referencing scaled up by 1000; Master:Ref - 1000:1. Not sure if that helps though?

What is the context in which you are using this model?

Would it help if you made a cell based on this model but scaled at the correct size?

First of all, thanks for the long and detailed answer.

Marc Thomas said:

Presumably the wrong scale was set when the profile was originally imported from AutoCAD?

This seems to be the case (the .dwg file was not done by me, so I am not aware of how or why the colleague working on it was using Aecosim to do a .dwg file).

A seed appropiate for this type of drafting should have been chosen at the very beginning, so that this would not have happened in the first place.

Marc Thomas said:

You could continue to use the file in it's current state with new models by referencing scaled up by 1000; Master:Ref - 1000:1. Not sure if that helps though?

Yes, this would have been the case as well!

Marc Thomas said:

When using AECOsim it is important to understand the essentials of resolution and the Solids Working Area, please see Setting Up in the Real World or "Where do we model?" for more details on that.

Thanks for the documentation, I will take a look at it.

This is probably one of the parts of the software that causes more confussion for colleagues that come from an Autodesk background, which ask me "how do I regenerate so I can zoom more". Hopefully, they may appreciate the ability to handle CAD thousands of meters in length and extension that was not possible with other software.

Just to add, it is really important to use the 1000 UOR/mm resolution set in the AECOsim seed files when modelling or creating Dynamic Views.

Just to add, it is really important to use the 1000 UOR/mm resolution set in the AECOsim seed files when modelling or creating Dynamic Views.