Relationship between: File Settings > Working Units: (a) Linear Units vs (b) Advanced Settings Resolution vs (c) GCS defined units (Geographic Coordinate System)

Thanks Rod / Thanks Tim

I didn't intend to hi-jack Neil Usefara's thread... but I do feel that if we can somehow quickly determine this information on a group of files, it would be very helpful with isolating files that are using settings that do not to conform to the project settings.

To expand on Jan's explanations above...

Linear Units: Defines the Unit of Measure in MicroStation and MicroStation-based products. Master units are significant where sub-units are less important (more of a user preference: Civil uses decimal feet and architects/structures use fractions of a foot/inches). Which Units (and custom units) are "available" can be defined in an external/configured units.def file. DGN files using different units can be referenced together (MicroStation does the conversion), but I try to avoid if/when possible. All units in MicroStatipon are based on the Meter.

Resolution Units: Defines the size of the Design Plane (2D) (3D = Cube) Pre-V8 DGN, this was defined by pixels 2-32nd power x 2-32 power. User could define the size of a pixel represented, i.e Meter, foot, mile, inch, etc. - which determined the "size" of the Design Plane/Cube. Because this was pixel-based, this was less accurate/did not meet IEEE double-enhanced precision. In my opinion, Resolution in V8/CONNECT units are a carry-over from pre-V8. In my opinion, Units used to define Resolution should match units used to define Working Units

Geographic Coordinate System (GCS): Determines where your project (coordinates) is. States in US may share the same coordinates - but when you define GCS, now MicroStation knows where the project is (in relation to the world system). Most GCS in USA are based on metric units - and then published in Metric units and imperial units (Feet, US Survey Feet) units. Different states use different projection methods. As mentioned, the GCS units must match DGN Working Units - or you will get a unit mismatch alert

Global Origin: Where on the Design Plane/Cube your model is located (center of Design Plane is typically most desired/most accurate)

All of these settings should be set in the seed files/models used for any project. 2D/3D is also set in the seed files/models

Reference Attach - Coincident: Aligns files using coordinates only

Reference Attach - Coincident World: Aligns files using coordinates and global origin

Hope this helps?

Tim Hickman said:

Your report is run on one file and reports references attached to that one file. So if you have 150 files you want this information from, you would have 150 reports

As I wrote, it's an example.  I don't know if MicroStation reports can be run on multiple files, but it would be useful.

David Allen said:

A process that would open each DGN/model in a directory and create 1 report

We had a QA tool that did something similar...

That tool was for V8 and there are no plans to migrate it to CONNECT.

I had a VBA years ago that did something like that. I can't seem to find it just now. If I remember correctly it wasn't all that hard to do. The tricky part was interpreting the Master/Sub units from VBA into something a normal person would understand.

Tim - you are correct. A process that would open each DGN/model in a directory and create 1 report showing Working Units, Resolution Units, Global Origin, Geographic Coordinate System, 2D/3D for each DGN/model

I don't think that is exactly what Dave is asking. Your report is run on one file and reports references attached to that one file. So if you have 150 files you want this information from, you would have 150 reports - or did I read it wrong ?

what I believe Dave wants is an overall way of getting the information from many files into one report instead of having just one report per file - or did I get that wrong also ?