See attached references of DGN file without opening it in Microstation

Is there a way or application I can use to just see a .dgn attached referenc tree, instead of opening it through microstation?

The situation I'm running into is I have a huge project files, and I need to go through all my files to determine all the reference attached, and it would very useful if theer was a way I could just see the reference manager without opening each files one at a time, waiting for microstation to load up all the drawings. 

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  • Hi,

    I think the answer will be different if you have or your need to work with one level of references only or there are several levels of references with live nesting used.

    If the first level is what you need, because there is no live nesting used or you don't take care about deeper levels, you can start MicroStation with -O1 argument (ustation.exe -O1). In this mode references are not processed, so the opening is pretty fast, but the directly attached references are still displayed in References dialog as not found (in red color). Don't mix up this mode with more often used -O mode, because when only -O is used, the references are not displayed at all in MicroStation.

    If you need to work with live nesting and several levels of (sub)references, in my opinion there is no other solution than to open the file in a standard way, because if live nested subreferences should be displayd in GUI, their master files have to be read and analysed as this information is not stored in the root model.

    An alternative way is to use Teigha library from Open Design Alliance to create own application to process the files, but I guess it's not what are you looking for now.

    With regards,

    Jan
  • Here is a macro I have posted here before that will list ref attachments from select folder  it opens them in non graphic mode so its pretty fast at processing entire directories is public domain but dont take out the creators name please.

    Then it saves a report to txt file format .. you can then open in excel or use  excelhook file with programming  provided and see the listing including if ref is attached but not turned on off .. unfortunately doesnt show nesting but it if the nested ref is in the same folder it lists the ref file references so with excel you can work out which are the nestings..

    only other draw back is you have to open at least one microstation file session so it can be empty and no refs just so you can run the macro..

    It works pretty well and has readme included... 

    it will process an entire directory just by selecting any file in that folder and it write the  output list to that folder so you can go folder by folder one folder at a time..

    Still very very fast  even if its mstn basic... Say if anyone can redo this in vba I'd love acopy as my vba skill isnt up to the task....listRefs.zip

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me 

Reply
  • Here is a macro I have posted here before that will list ref attachments from select folder  it opens them in non graphic mode so its pretty fast at processing entire directories is public domain but dont take out the creators name please.

    Then it saves a report to txt file format .. you can then open in excel or use  excelhook file with programming  provided and see the listing including if ref is attached but not turned on off .. unfortunately doesnt show nesting but it if the nested ref is in the same folder it lists the ref file references so with excel you can work out which are the nestings..

    only other draw back is you have to open at least one microstation file session so it can be empty and no refs just so you can run the macro..

    It works pretty well and has readme included... 

    it will process an entire directory just by selecting any file in that folder and it write the  output list to that folder so you can go folder by folder one folder at a time..

    Still very very fast  even if its mstn basic... Say if anyone can redo this in vba I'd love acopy as my vba skill isnt up to the task....listRefs.zip

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me 

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