I am still wrapping my head around the Sheet Index, and I have a couple of questions.
A workset can only have one sheet index, correct? Why is that? I can think of a few reasons that a plan sheet might be included in more than one set of plans, either through project staging, different submittal plans, permit plans that are separate from construction plans, or a R/W submittal set (again, separate from construction plans). A sheet index would be a great way to automate some of the renumbering that goes along with those different plan sets...but I suppose there would need to be a way to "activate" a different sheet index. I suppose I can see how it might fall down, but I'd be really happy if I could have more than one per project.
When a Sheet Index table is placed on a sheet, is there a way to disconnect it from that sheet index? So that it retains the information as it was placed, and not update when the (single) index gets rearranged?
I'm thinking in particular about environmental permitting for projects we do. Those are a separate set of plans from the construction plans, although they include many of the same sheets. It doesn't make sense to me to make an extra workset because I'm not making an extra set of plan drawings. It's the same sheets for the same project (with some additions and subtractions). As I understand it, a DGN can only belong to one workset, so a separate workset for permitting plans would mean moving drawings back and forth between permitting and construction worksets. I see a LOT of room for error, confusion, and slipping through the cracks.
I was thinking one workspace per client, one workset per project makes sense until I start thinking about all the ways we combine and recombine plan sheets until we reach the final submittal.
I had though that Sheet Indexes were somehow akin to PSETs, where I could list and arrange and organize my plan sheets to generate a plan set, but it doesn't sound like that at all.
I don't know what part I don't understand, so I don't even know what questions to ask. The way we do things (which I am in a position to advise, but not change outright) we may not be able to leverage worksets or sheet indexes much at all because of the inflexibility. Am I not understanding how they work yet? Or am I seeing things correctly? The documentation is really not as helpful as it may seem.
You are correct that a WorkSet can only have one Sheet Index. A dgn file can only belong to a single WorkSet at any one time, but you can reference files from different WorkSets without an issue. The Sheet Index data is stored in the WorkSet .dgnws file. As a result, users must have the necessary permissions to modify that file if you want them to be able to update the index.
You can create different folders within a Sheet Index, each with their own sheet numbering scheme. Each sheet added to a folder will inherit the numbering scheme from the parent folder.
As for making the tables, these are linked to report definitions. You can create your own report definitions to customize how the tables are created.
I know that doesn't answer all of your questions, but hopefully gives you a little more info to go on.
Rod WingSenior Systems Analyst
That sounds as if "Sheet Index" does not need to be a singular list of sheets. The way you describe it, I could have multiple index folders, and each one could be an independent "index" of sheets in that particular plan set. As in, I would have one Sheet Index, but that one Index, could have folders for Size & Type, STG1, STG2, ENV Permits, STG3, etc. Drawing sheet models could belong to more than one folder in that Index, and each folder could be ordered and numbered independently. That definitely would be useful to us, and something we could work with.
Now to dig further into the DGNWS, to see what the pros and cons of giving everyone permissions to that could be. Does the DGNWS need to be stored in the workset directory, or can that be stored elsewhere on a network?
MaryB
Power GeoPak 08.11.09.918Power InRoads 08.11.09.918OpenRoads Designer 2021 R2
That is correct, you can mimic multiple sheet indexes for separate jobs by storing them in different folder structures within the same sheet index.
The location of the .dgnws file is determined by the variable _USTN_WORKSETDGNWS. The .dgnws file does not get created automatically if you move it to a different location, so you will need a seed.dgnws file to copy manually when creating a WorkSet.
BTW - the .dgnws file is just a regular .dgn file that stores WorkSet properties. If you open the .dgnws file in MicroStation you can select File > Properties from the ribbon and edit WorkSet properties in the dialog that would normally be grayed out.
Answer Verified By: MaryB