Export to dwg creates multiple versions of blocks

I am trying to export a dgn file to dwg and for some reason every instance of identical cells get exported as separate blocks in the dwg file (i.e. 10 instances of cell 327W get exported as 327W_1, 327W_2, etc.). The cells are normal cells in the dgn file (not shared). In the export tool I have it selected to create single block for duplicated cells but for some reason it always turns out the same. Any ideas or tips would be appreciated.

Update: When I open the dwg file MS the cells are now showing as shared cells all with individual definitions. No clue why the dwg version of this file is showing as shared cells but maybe that's a clue for someone with more experience than me.

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  • Hi Mike,

    What version of MicroStation are you using?

    The cells may not be duplicate cells.

    When saving to DWG, if you have two or more cells with the same name and the definition is different, MicroStation will add the _number to the back of the cell with the same name. It will keep incrementing the number for each cell that is found by the same name but with a different cell definition. I know that you mentioned that the cells were not shared, but check your file and see if there are any other cell definitions in the file.

    If you have not tried yet, compress the file and checking the option "unused cell definitions" or using the keyin "delete scdefs all" to remove any definitions.

    The last thing is to confirm that the cells were placed with native MicroStation and not a third party application.

    Regards,

    Regie


       

  • Thanks for the reply Regie, I am using V8 Connect Edition. This file was supplied to us by the client and was created natively with MicroStation.

    As far as I can tell the definitions are the same, see attached screenshot, although when you look at the raw data the Element ID Varies.

    I ran the keyin but it said 0 shared cells deleted. The native file does not have any shared cells and I think that might be causing the problem as dwg format does not work with normal cells. MS is creating a new shared cell for every instance of the normal cell.

    Does anything jump out at you in the attached image?

Reply
  • Thanks for the reply Regie, I am using V8 Connect Edition. This file was supplied to us by the client and was created natively with MicroStation.

    As far as I can tell the definitions are the same, see attached screenshot, although when you look at the raw data the Element ID Varies.

    I ran the keyin but it said 0 shared cells deleted. The native file does not have any shared cells and I think that might be causing the problem as dwg format does not work with normal cells. MS is creating a new shared cell for every instance of the normal cell.

    Does anything jump out at you in the attached image?

Children