Hi all,
Let me explain through a simple case.
Step 1 - I created simple Cells and ItemType definition. The Item is not yet attached to the Cell elements
Step 2 - attached same ItemType (TOCKE) to Cells and filled in some values.
Step 3 - now I want to Export DGN to DWG and convert ItemTypes to Tags (Block Attributes). Everything is fine except that the TagSets are copied multiple times with the same definition of attributes (TOCKE, TOCKE_1, TOCKE_2,...)
Of course, last step is not what I expected. If I have only one definition of ItemTypes (TOCKE) attached to multiple Cells, I expect that TagSets will also have one TagSet definition attached to multiple Cells.
Or I'm wrong?
Calling all Microstation guru please help me with these...
Thanks in advance and kind regards.
Mladen
OCM Ultimate 10.17.01.29 - ItemTypes and export to DWG
BMap V8i (SS4) 8.11.09.887 - open DWG and checking TagSets Definition and Tags after export.
Hi again,
I've made some progress with unique definition of TagSets in DWG file... but some new problems appeared when I export DGN to DWG (R2000 or whatever version).
First, if you wanna get unique definition of TagSets in DWG you need to use Shared Cells with attached ItemTypes. This makes sense because Shared Cells are similar to how Blocks are implemented in ACAD.
The current issue is with exported Tag values. In order to examine what is happening I created a TEST CASE.dgn.
In DGN all Cells are placed as SharedCells and attached ItemTypes with values in all properties.
In the left column (101-104), a TextNode is added when I attach an ItemType to each SharedCell with different settings whose property have to be visible as a TextNode.
In the right column (105-108), I added TextNode for each property manually after attaching ItemType to the SharedCell. This can be done with TextEditor and FieldType from Element Properties.
When I export TEST CASE.dgn to TEST CASE.DWG most of the values are not the same. Only when I export SharedCell with all FieldType visualized as TextNode that element (105) is exported correctly. I suspect that other elements are having problems with parsing the values because correct values are all concatenated in one property (TOCKE) and other properties seems that copy values from first element.
What I need is to export all the values regardless they are associated with TextNodes or not.
I suspect that there may be one or more bugs.
I didn't yet rise ServiceRequest and I would kindly ask colleague on this forum to give me an advice.
Kind regards,
TEST CASE files:
MS_TEST_CASE_SharedCells.dgn
MS_TEST_CASE_SharedCells.dwg
Now I'm using Microstation CE U17 10.17.02.61 to create Cells, ItemTypes and Export to DWG. Also checking Tag values in DWG.
BMap V8i (SS4) 8.11.09.887 I use only to check unique TagSet of exported DWG
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Your test DGN file shows that you might have your columns reversed, i.e. (101-104) are placed with text display turned off except the first value, and (105-108) are placed with all values turned on? The 101-104 text nodes are combined by Item Types and Text Fields in such a way that is not supported in ACAD. You have opted to display only the value of the first item. After you have attached the item, a text node is created that is supposed to represent the first item's value only, but then as you have described, you have used the text editor to append text fields that point to the item values you have turned off for display. This capability does not exist in ACAD - you can't alter the display of an attribute with a different value. The value you entered for an attribute is what must be displayed in a view.
Your (105-108) items are comparable to ACAD attributes - each of them has its individual display control.
Dear Mr. Don H. Fu,
thanks for the comment.
The main goal of this issue is to correctly export ItemTypes as DWG Tag Attributes. The display settings in analysis is here because I saw that it has somthing to do how ItemTypes are exported.
In short, the correct export is the issue.
Maybe I did not fully understand the issue, but if you place Item Types normally, as you have done with those under (105-108), then you can export them correctly (and you have).
What cannot be exported as expected is when you insert other item type values as text fields into another text node which belongs to another item type value. If you attempted the same workflow in ACAD, you'd end up with what you have seen in your exported DWG file.
Another case that may not work as expected is your first scenario using Normal Cells. I have not checked your file but you seem to have figured it out that share cells are comparable to blocks in ACAD, hence you have finally settled with using shared cells. If you still want to use normal cells, you need to keep in mind that AutoCAD does not have the concept of a normal cell. Therefore, normal cells must be exported as blocks. If your normal cells use the same cell name, with different content, they cannot be shared, hence they end up being exported as different shared cells with different name suffixes. Not all content differences are obvious or even visible. The easiest way to avoid normal cell deduplication from exporting is to simply use shared cells. It seems to me that you are already on that route anyway.
Dear Don,
You're right! The normal Cells are not in my focus on this issue anymore. I understand why they are converted to DWG as separate Blocks with different Block names and different TagSets (names with suffix: ..._1, ..._2, etc.). In contrast, Shared Cells are more similar to the concept of ACAD Blocks. Furthermore, when Shared Cells are combined with attached ItemTypes, the conversion process correctly converts them to one Block name and one TagSet - and that's fine by me on this issue.
What is bothering me is why all ItemTypes properties attached to SharedCells aren't converted to all properties in BlockAttributes? Regardless how properties are set to display as Text/TextNode/something equivalent.
Together with Melissa from Bentley support we're doing deep analysis and will come out with something.
Thank You all for helping me.
Kind regards.