Some tags (orphan tags) are not displayed on the screen in attached Reference files.
Product: MicroStation V8 2004 EditionVersion: 08.05.01.25
DGN file contains Tags and they all display on the screen. If you attach this DGN file as a Reference to a master file, some of the tags are not displayed on the screen, but element information shows that the tags are present.This DGN file was created from DWG file. In the original DWG file these tags have attribute definitions. This is what happens in AutoCAD when you first place attributes but have not created a block out of them. In V8 these are represented by orphan tag elements. These are tags that refer to a tag set definition but are not associated with anything. You can also create these directly in V8 using the attach tags tool with the association toggle off (to facilitate the creation of attributed cells in DWG workmode).
Orphan tags have some very specialized display behavior to match AutoCAD. When not being viewed through an external Reference attachment, orphan tags are always visible and display their tag names and not tag values.
When viewed through an external Reference attachment, orphan tags are only visible if they are not defined as a variable. These constant value tags then display their value and not name.
You have a couple of choices to make these elements behave like you want them to. The first is to select the tag element and use the CHANGE TAGS REASSOC key-in to attach it to the shape it is in. If you do this it will display its value and not the name, so you need to edit the value.
The other option is to drop them to text using the CHANGE TAGS DROPTEXT key-in.