Original Date: May 2003
Updated: October 2010
So you got a MicroStation V8 cell library and you've now got to turn them into AutoCAD blocks. What do you do? Read along and learn a nifty little trick in this short article.
The image below shows the contents of the delivered remodel cell library that's found in the ...\Workspace\system\cell\... folder. Our task is to export this file so that each cell becomes an AutoCAD block. Let's do it!
First thing to do is to open the cell library as your active design file. Although this is optional, you can also see or verify that each cell is a model by opening the Models dialog.
While in the open cell library select File > Save As... and set the Save as type to Autodesk(R) DWG Files (*.dwg) and the select the Options button.
In the Save As DWG/DXF Options box, navigate to the General tab and expand the Advanced option. Ensure that Non-Default Design Models is set to Create Separate Files which just so happens to be the default.
Then navigate to the Filter tab, click on the Models button and select the cells you want to export. Once you've confirmed your settings, click OK and Save in the Save As dialog to initiate the translation.
MicroStation will extract each model into a separate DWG file which is exactly what you wanted! Note that that each resulting DWG file will be prepended with the name of the source cell library.
AskInga Article #138