With MicroStation Update 17 it is now easier to create and apply display rules and share your data. New tools and enhancements are introduced to streamline your workflows and let you export your data with display rules. 

The new Apply Display Rule tool will let you find and apply a display rule to the active view (or all views)  without having to dig into the Display Styles dialog and settings.

Capability to Export with Display Rules to DWG, DXF, or DGN formats is added. This will create files of the above formats using the symbology applied by the active display rules.

Both, Apply Display Rule and Export with display rules are available as a technology preview in this update.

Condition Editor Enhancements

You can now create display rules more effectively and with greater flexibility. The property picker in the condition editor has been improved, offering new capabilities and a better experience for creating rules, while at the same time reducing the number of rules needed in many cases.

• Elements’ Classes are grouped into a list for easy access. You can view the available classes in a drop-down menu. These host classes contain one or more property types and will be available depending on the content of the file. For example, if the file has item types attached then the list will display the Item Types class.
  
  
• The “show classes” button now makes it possible to see classes for the selected element only. Select the element and select this option in the condition editor to view classes specific to the element. You no longer have to search through a long list of properties to find the one needed.
  
  
• The search field lets you quickly search for desired classes and properties.
  
  
• The “like” operator is now available for many more conditions. The “Like” operator supports wildcards, which means you can now use a wildcard character when creating many more types of rules. An example is the creation of a rule, based on Level criteria: previously you had to create an individual rule for each level you wanted to include, while now you can create just one rule using an expression like *glass*, which will include all levels including “glass” in their names.

Enhancements available as Technology Preview

Apply Display rules

If you use Display Rules in your designs often, Update 17 makes it easy for you to apply display rules to any View. You will see the new Apply Display Rule icon in the Presentation ribbon group under the View tab:

From the Apply Display Rule tool setting dialog, you can choose the display rule to be applied to the active View, open the Display Rules dialog,  or choose to the selected display rule to all views.

Export with Display Rules

The Export with Display Rules option in the File > Export > Common File Types menu lets you export your data as currently displayed in the active View, including applied display rules, to DWG/DXF and DGN formats.

With this new capability, you can close the loop on data-driven workflows, as you can now not only change the presentation of your data on your screen but also export this view to DWG, for even smarter collaboration.

As an example, you can create rules for re-symbolizing your model in one click for different use cases and send customized drawings to different contractors, without having to create different versions of the same model and manually change levels or symbology.