Sheet borders in tutorials display message "Reference display off"

Hello,

I am completely new to MicroStation, with several years experience in AutoCAD. I have been working through several tutorials here. I have worked through "Civil Design Using Micro Station" and "AccuDraw Compass and Micro Station". I am currently working through "QuickStart for Roadway Designers Using Micro Station". I am in the "Producing Project Deliverables" portion wherein I am creating cut sheets. In this workset, just as in a previous one, the seed file for the Civil RDWY QuickStart SHEETSEED.dgn displays only the sheet outline. There are no title blocks or border lines. I can open the seed file itself and can see all of the linework for the border, just as it appears in the tutorial, except without the Bentley Institute logo. I can Identify the levels on which the linework appears in the seed file, and these levels appear in my working drawing, but are unused even after referencing the model in. When I go to the level display tool in my drawing, the "Civil RDWY QuickStart border.dgn appears in red text and if I left click on it it says "Reference Display is Off". If i right click on it and choose "Open Dialog" all of the information in the box appears in red text. when i mouse over the red text it says "File not found". I've made sure that all of the levels on which the border linework should appear are turned on. I skipped over it in the previous workset, thinking that it was just a problem with the file, and that all I was really missing out on was some text placement. But now that it is doing the same thing in a completely different workset, I'm afraid maybe I'm doing something wrong or overlooking some setting. I would like to be able to work completely through the tutorials.

Thank you,

Jude

  • A red reference file with a message "File not found" means exactly that. Microstation does not know where the file is located. When that happens, Microstation cannot display the file and turns the display off automatically.

    There are a few ways to help MicroStation "find" a reference file. The quickest for a "one off" situation is just to go into the reference dialog and right click the attachment in question so you can open the Settings for that file. There you will have the option to browse to the correct location. Make sure that you check the little box for "Save Relative Path" so that the appropriate portion of the path will be saved and Microstation can find the file in the future. A more robust method is to edit your configuration. Find the variable MS_RFDIR and append that to include the directory where your reference files will be stored. This is also something that can (down the line) be set on a Workspace/Workset basis for each project. You probably will need to restart Microstation after making configuration changes.

    Once the file has been "found" you should be able to turn the display setting for that reference back on.

    MaryB

    Power GeoPak 08.11.09.918
    Power InRoads 08.11.09.918
    OpenRoads Designer 2021 R2

        

    Answer Verified By: Jude Walker 

  • Thank you for your response. I have tried the first method. The file name no longer displays in red text, but the linework is still not displayed. all of the levels show up under the file name, but none are shown as being used. I will have to try the second method editing my configuration when I get a chance to get back to the tutorials.

    Thank you,

    Jude

    MicroStation 08.11.09.459

    AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018

  • Have you turned on the reference display toggle for that file? It's turned off automatically when a file isn't found, and it doesn't automatically turn on.

    Also, are you sure that you have attached the correct MODEL? DGN files can have more than one model that can be attached as a reference, with multiple design models and the ability to attach sheet and drawing models. It's more flexible than AutoCAD, but it also means that you need to be sure that you attach the proper model, as well as the drawing.

    MaryB

    Power GeoPak 08.11.09.918
    Power InRoads 08.11.09.918
    OpenRoads Designer 2021 R2

        

  • I did make sure that the reference display is toggled on in the Reference dialog box. There is a check mark under the Display icon. I followed the tutorial carefully, and have repeated it about four times now. There are 6 .dgn files in the "seed" folder. The file that the tutorial uses is named "Civil RDWY Quickstart SHEETSEED.dgn", and this is the file that the Reference Dialog points to.

    Jude

    MicroStation 08.11.09.459

    AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018

  • But I am asking about the model within the DGN. Is there only one model in that DGN file, or are there more than one? Each DGN file can have more than one model.

    In AutoCAD, you don't have to pay attention to which model you attach because you only have one Model space and you can't attach layouts. In Microstation, you can have multiple design models, as well as drawing and sheet models, all of which can be used as a reference. It's possible to attach the correct DGN, but select the wrong model within that DGN file.

    I can't think of all the times I tried to attach a reference, only to see nothing - then I find out that I attached the empty design model instead of the sheet model I wanted. They are all in the same DGN file, but I chose the incorrect model, so nothing shows up.

    Can you ZIP both your file and the attachment file so that we could take a look at what might be going on?

    MaryB

    Power GeoPak 08.11.09.918
    Power InRoads 08.11.09.918
    OpenRoads Designer 2021 R2