Hello,
I think this is a very general question, I tried searching the forum for similar threads but couldn't find any. Let me try to phrase the question:
Our clients request all As Built documentation to be delivered in PDF and DWG. They won't accept DGN because Microstation / Openbuildings Designer / ProStructures (the softwares we use at our company) are simply very little known or used in our region. So that means I have to convert all sheets to DWG.
Unfortunately though, I can't find a good setting to create well structured DWG file. What I would like to achieve is a single DWG file for each sheet where the geometry, annotations, ... from the (DGN) drawing models are placed in the model space and the layout contains viewports. The way it would be if I created the drawing in AutoCAD for example. Other software like Revit and Tekla Structures do this in a good way, in my opinion.
The best I can achieve from Bentley products, without having to use XREF to external files, is to use the option to "merge" references. But this means that all geometry will be drawn in the layout/paperspace of the DWG file and model space will remain blank. This is unacceptable.
I can imagine one of the difficulties is that DWG only supports a single "Model space", which would correspond to the design/drawing models in a DGN file. And one sheet usually references multiple of those models.
The other softwares I named above handle this by placing all the geometry side-by-side in the model view, then creating the relevant Viewports in the layout. A much more elegant solution, meaning mostly that one can simply measure in the model space without worrying about scale etc.
As it happens I just got a question from one of my colleagues related to this exact problem, while I was typing this post. So I'm 100% certain that we are not the only people struggling with this, there must be others, architects, ... who have the same issue.
Is there a solution for this? Or would it require a big amount of rework for the DWG exporter to create such functionality?
Thanks! Always interesting to learn how work is done in other parts of the world :)
Have you checked out this Bentley Learn thread? https://learn.bentley.com/app/Public/ViewLearningPathDetails?lpId=110799 The section titled Working in a DWG Workmode contains a 100+ page PDF guide worth scanning through - explaining how MS/ORD Named Boundaries tool is unavailable (among other tools) to constrain tool usage to achieve the most compatible result and proceeds to walk through roughly a dozen best-practices. I'd be very surprised to see it as a perfect solution knowing a long history of conversion issues between the two. The hope in sharing this is that it will help isolate which best practices can be applied to help reduce the frustration.
Bentley Accredited Road Designer | Bentley Accredited Road Modeler
colliersengineering.com
Thank you Shawn for your reply!
If I'm not mistaken the DWG Workmode is all about editing DWG files with Bentley tools (MS/ORD/OBD/...)? But that's not what I am after. The restriction for all kind of tools is not something I want to live with during our design work.
The point is that we want to work in DGN mode, to have all functionality the software has to offer. Then ONLY for export we want to go to DWG and create usable output including both model space and paper space. I'll repeat again, other tools like Revit, Tekla, ... do the same thing. Those tools don't have a DWG workmode, they cannot modify existing DWG files. They can only generate new ones.
Maybe need to use CVE's for some or all of the views?
It would be interesting if Axiom could help. Sounds like this would be common problem.
www.axiomint.com/.../
If your goal is to put your sheet into modelspace, you may try following steps:
1) Activate your sheet model from which you intend to recompose the drawing
2) Set MS_DWG_SINGLESHEET_AS_MODELSPACE=1 to tell MicroStation to map your sheet to modelspace, as supposed to a paperspace, when the source has no design model
3) In DWG SaveAs Options select a view you like
4) Toggle Advanced->Create Separate Files for Sheets on
Save your DGN as DWG into a clean folder, find a file created from your sheet. This file should have geometry in the modelspace.