I just want to start out and say that the whole survey feet / international foot issue is the worst thing Bentley has ever done. This issue has been going on for years now and it still is a problem that many people don't know about let alone know how to deal with it.
Anyhow,
I have a dwg file that was provided to us by our surveyor. Normally our surveyors give us everything in MS but this was not our normal surveyors. I open the file in autocad to check the coordinates of one of the buildings and it gives me:2633452.4295,283153.4119. Sounds good. Open up a blank (seed) file that has survey feet as the working units and I reference in the autocad file check the same point and I get 2633447.1626,283152.8456. Well, that's not right. So I open another seed file using int. feet and then reference it in and check it and now it matches the autocad coords.
I thought this was fixed in Microstation and it was smart enough to adjust based on your working units. It also doesn't ask me when referencing in the autocad file what units to use.
Anyone able to shed some light on this?
You may have to open the units.def file in Notepad and uncomment the line that has Survey Feet.
units.def is the file that the list is based off of - so you not having the complete list might mean that this file has been modified or that you are loading one that is different then the one that is delivered. Are you in a custom workspace ? What is the MS_CUSTOMUNITDEF set to ?
Timothy Hickman
CADD Manager | CADD Department
timothy.hickman@colliersengineering.com
Main: 877 627 3772|
1000 Waterview Drive Suite 201 | Hamilton, New Jersey 08691
Tim,
when I go into the options box there are 2 areas to set the units but both are set to feet.
Unspecified Design Center Units and Architectural or Engineering Units. Both give me the same options.
Mils
Inches
Feet
Yards
Miles
There is no international foot or survey foot option. Is there a units.def file used for autocad conversions or something?
I'm running 08.11.07.443 if that makes a difference.
ok - there are a few things here.
AutoCad files are unitless so there is no unit applied to to coordinates. When the file is either opened or referenced (in your case) MicroStation needs to be told what units the file is in. Looking at the scenerio you posted, I am guessing you have it set to open DWG files in international feet, which is why it lines up when referenced to an international foot design file.
Try selecting the DWG file to be opened using MicroStation, but before you open it, select the "options" button. This should open the DWG open options dialog. Now depending on the DWG file type (architectural or scientific) look at what these are set to. My guess is, these are set to "feet". Depending on the file type, change it to "US Survey feet". Open the file, check the coordinates and the master unit for the file (they should be correct).
Now open your MicroStation design file that is in survey feet, and attach the DWG file as a reference. Are they lining up ?
Doesn't True Scale take care of this?