CE Update 14: Thumbnails in Windows Explorer?

Hi Dominic,

I think there are 3 different questions there:

• Infrastructure that has to exist to ensure the preview will be created and read by Windows Explorer
• MicroStation configuration to allow the thumbnail creation
• MicroStation configuration what content is used to create the thumbnail

Everything should works by default when MicroStation is installed.

I think Bentley DGN Thubnail Provider, included in MicroStation installation, represents the bridge between DGN format and Windows thumbnails system / cache.

MicroStation saves the thumbnails when Save settings (Ctrl+F) is used.

MS_THUMBNAIL configuration variable can be used to switch off the thumbnails creation, as well as to defined what content should be used (View 1 by default, but it can e.g. saved view).

With regards,

  Jan

Thanks, Jan. I can seem to find MS_Thumbnail in the Config viewer. No sign of the thumbnail thingy in the Mstn folder either.

Is this an additional install?

dominic SEAH said:

I can seem to find MS_Thumbnail in the Config viewer

MS_THUMBNAIL is not necessarily defined.  Help tells us what happens if it is not present.

Thanks, guys. Much appreciated.

I defined MS_THUMBNAIL and Mstn is now generating the thumbnails when I Ctrl-S.

One niggle is that the Batch Convert tool does not seem to recognise the new config var and converts the the .rfa's without a thumbnail. I now have to open each .dgn, do a Ctrl-F followed by a Ctrl-S.

If you want to see a particular area as your thumbnail create a "Saved View" by the name of "Preview" in the file.

See also: 

communities.bentley.com/.../utilize-a-saved-view-for-your-thumbnail

communities.bentley.com/.../batch-create-thumbnails-to-use-in-the-microstation-manager