Deleted elements are marked with a bit for delete, but are not deleted immediately. When a file is accidentally cleaned out, eg with fence void, and the file size remains lalarge, eg 6 megabytes, then all that date is still in the file. IF a compress is done, the file size shrinks, and the data is lost. But if a compress is not done, and the file remains big, then all the deleted data is still in the file, each element with its delete bit set. It is possible to go through and reset those bits, recovering all the date. (if the file has not been compressed. HOW do I do it???
If your in the same session, you can UNDO the changes. Not sure if the UNDO buffer carries between sessions
Undo is cleared between sessions!
It is no longer possible to do that as of V8. There was a tool in V7 called EDG, that had that capability, but it no longer exists. It may exist inside Bentley, within a special group, but I can't really say. You can try to send the file to Bentley, to see if they can recover anything, but I haven't seen too much success with that. If Bentley can't help you are out-of-luck! Unless the file is a Version 7 file format, and you have (or can get the old EDG program).
I Hope This Helps Someone Reading This! (Intergraph>PseudoStation>MicroStation user since 1980's)
Wonder what would happen if you saved a v8 file like this back to v7 then ran EDG on it? Years ago we used EDG fairly regularly, usually for corrupt elements, sometimes for accidental deletion. For whatever reason haven't needed it for a long time. We have used VerifyDgn some, but it's hard to tell just what that thing does.
Connect r17 10.17.2.61 self-employed-Unpaid Beta tester for Bentley
I think saving it back to v7 would probably remove all the elements marked for deletion. VerifyDGN is pretty worthless. If you try to search for a solution online don't get sucked into Axiom. They are relentless with phone calls once you make an inquiry and their software does not perform as advertised. You may consider turning on Design History. I have not personally used it, but I do know you can go back and restore deleted elements. There are certain downsides to that as well. There can be a ripple affect by performing the wrong operation.
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I believe that it would only take the elements it could see. It would not take the deleted elements.