Level Locked

Level Locks will only lock the level and all elements within, but you can still copy elements though elements increase.

I believe the best way for that is to work with Change Attributes. This way you can manage which element goes to which level.

As work progress keep an eye in Level Manager to check elements sum in each level and manage through this:

Hope this helps.

Regards

Sounds like the elements you are copying have additional layers that you don't!
Anytime you copy elements from another file M-Sta. will place the element in your file, on the layer it was on in the original file. There is a Variable you can set that will not allow the user to create levels, that might help, CAPABILITY_LEVELS_CREATE. I am not sure what it would do with the elements you are trying to copy that are on the level that is not in your active file. You can always move the element, that is on the level you don't want, to another level, and then remove/Delete the level. If the element is not supposed to be on that extra level, Move it in the original file. You can turn the bad level off in the Reference display, and it won't copy those elements into your file, thus it will not create the level.

For that we can always use the powerful Make Copy from Change Attributes:

This copy the selected elements from the reference that you want to your file and place them on the needed output level, without creating the original elements level.

Regards

There are a  couple of things that  can be done

set up company workspace of  project  standards , in that  you can create a dgnlib with  only the  controlled Authorised level names and  in the workspace  config you can further specify  a variable that no new  levels can be created by users , this will enforce or ensure your standards  but will also drive  some people NUTS  with  why cant  I copy  those elements  from one ref file into the active.. hence   publication of standards documentation and training are essential...  you can also  teach your users to use CSV remapping  or ask the  Administrator  so that you can export the  levels you need to  acceptable  level names rather than just trying  to copy  wholesale levels and elements....

Or remap levels in the level manager if you need to change the level.

Or remap levels in the level manager if you need to change the level.