Map Manager's interpretation of point .shp-files

We have a rather simple workflow where features with certain property values in a point .shp-file needs to be translated into certain Microstation cells.

This is a task that Map Manager is a convenient tool for. However, at least with our configuration, the point .shp-file is interpreted as the type POINT_LINE. This interpretation prevents the possibility of overriding the symbology to use a specific cell.

From a different thread in this forum, I learned that my issue can be resolved by creating an .impx-file through the Import-pane on Map Interoperability and attaching this file instead of attaching the .shp-file directly.

But as the only thing I need from the .impx-file is to convey to Map Manager that the features in question are POINT_CELL rather than POINT_LINE it feels a bit cluncky and unneccesary overhead that I have to create a .impx-file for each and every .shp-file in the workflow. It would be much cleaner if I through a configuration variable could instruct Bentley Map - or at least Map Manager - to interpret point .shp-files as POINT_CELL and use a default cell as the symbology. Is this possible at the time being?

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  • Hello,

    Import from SHP should be done in Map Interoperability. Before importing point feature, you must set the Point Type to Cell then set all symbology expected. These settings could be save as .IMPX file then to be re-use later if needed.

    The other way to import point as point-cell is by using mapped name in the Map Interoperability dialog. This will match the import point shapefile with a XFM Point feature and his symbology defined in Geospatial Administrator schema (.XML).

    I hope that helps.
    Sebastien Lefrancois [Bentley]


    This is a test

  • Hello Sebastien,

    I'm trying to avoid importing the features physically altogether as it's a tedius task that breaks the link to the .shp-file so if that gets changed, I have to perform the import once more.

    Attaching .impx-files instead of importing features physically gets me halfway through as the link to the .shp-file is then maintained. However, I still have to manually go through Map Interoperability's Import for each point .shp-file to create a corresponding .impx-file. This is a very time consuming task prone to human error when it has to be iterated several hundred times, which is the case when dealing with several hundred .shp-files. And it seems especially unneccesary when all these .impx-files point to the same cell in the same cell library that I don't even want to use, as I'm going to override them with Map Manger later anyway.

    So, if Map Manager had a configuration variable that could tell it to always interpret point .shp-files as POINT_CELL, I could achieve my goal. But based on your answer, I'm guesssing a such variable does not exist :-)
  • Hello,

    I suggest to use the following key-in and see in help file, at "Map Interoperability Connections Key-ins" page for more details.

    gdi import file=myFile cell=MyCell

    Regards,
    Sebastien Lefrancois [Bentley]


    This is a test

  • The suggested key-in imports the features physically into the dgn. I want to maintain the data link to the .shp-file

    Also, Map Manager still interprets these features as POINT_LINE since there is no .impx-file/default value to tell it to use POINT_CELL instead.
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