Problem

Is there any way to set which model is used as the thumbnail view?

Is it possible to set which model is used as the thumbnail view for previewing in MicroStation Manager, Windows Explorer or the Reference dialog box? Even after performing a Save Settings from a 2D Sheet model, the thumbnail is still coming from the 3D Design model.

Solution

In order to set the Sheet model as the thumbnail:

1) Navigate to your Sheet model and zoom and/or rotate the view window as needed.
2) Choose Utilities > Saved Views and create a new Saved View called "Preview" (without the quotes).
3) If prompted to overwrite the existing Saved View, click Yes.
4) Save Settings.
5) Choose File > Close to exit to MicroStation Manager .

The thumbnail in MicroStation Manager should now reflect your extraction model as zoomed.

The configuration variable MS_THUMBNAIL can be used to control the behavior of thumbnail generation. If the variable MS_THUMBNAIL is defined, MicroStation takes the value of the variable and looks for a saved view of the same name. If the specified saved view name cannot be found, then the system will create and/or update the thumbnail image using the lowest numbered open view window (for example, if views 4-8 are open, view 4 is used).

If the MS_THUMBNAIL variable is not defined, MicroStation looks for a saved view called "Preview" and if found uses that Saved View's settings (model, orientation, render mode, etc.) to create the thumbnail. If MS_THUMBNAIL is not defined *and* if the saved view called "Preview" does not exist in any design or sheet model within that DGN file, MicroStation will use the lowest numbered open view window as noted above.

If MS_THUMBNAIL is set to "NONE", then no new thumbnail is generated. However, if a thumbnail already exists in the DGN file, setting MS_THUMBNAIL to "NONE" does not remove what already exists in the DGN file, it simply does not update what already exists.

See also

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