SS3 .722 Civil Standards-Project Settings-Survey problem with 2D export

When exporting a 2D file from a 3D using the File-Export 2D I noticed that under the Civil Standards tab down under Survey it is using "Settings" rather than our "MDOT" settings. The 3D file has "MDOT". I read another comment on here that was similar and saw a defect had been filed awhile ago, but I think this is slightly different than that. I believe this is causing us some issues in how we want the 2D file to come out, and would like to know how we get the created 2D file to use our settings when it is created. We can't use the workaround posted for the past defect, this needs to be during file creation. If we can't get it to read our settings, what .dgnlib file does that "Settings" point to so I can try to edit that?

2D

3D

  • Quick question for some clarification on the process. What is the purpose/reason you want to take a 3D dgn with survey to a 2D file? Wouldn't that lose the 3D survey intelligence and then the survey would no longer be "smart"? I know that has come up with another user, so I am just trying to get an understanding of why this would need to be done.

    If you want dumb graphics without the civil intelligence of the survey field book, try saving it out as a DWG, then saving it as a 2D DGN. This may keep the same properties of the elements but allow them to be taken to 2D just as graphical elements.

    As you stated, this issue has come up before and the defect (D-132286) was logged regarding the survey settings not set correctly when the settings are selected for a new DGN file, although it appears to be using a certain setting. We are currently looking to see if the defect has been resolved in the latest SS4 release.


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  • In my past response I mentioned saving out as a DWG, then saving to a DGN to convert to dumb graphics which is incorrect for Survey. The correct process is to right-click on the fieldbook and select Export To > DGN Graphics. There is no need to save as a DWG to 'strip' the intelligence.

    Then you may can try exporting the DGN as 2D.


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  • Thanks for the reply Chris, and sorry I didn't get back earlier. I've been having trouble logging in from my one computer. As to your question on why we would want to do that, I'm not really sure. I'm a 3D person myself, but there are apparently units here that still want and use a dumb topo file so we need to provide that.

    The process you mentioned on doing the Export to .dgn graphics is what we've been doing, then a File->Export 2D. The problem we are running into is in a majority of files the 2D file ends up larger than the 3D file size wise. The last job I was involved with was a 60mb 3D file, but after the export to graphics, 2D export the 2D file was 90mb with no Terrain model, no 3D model, and no intelligence. This has not made any sense, and that was the worst case I have seen. This is why I'm looking into alternative ways on going about this, because that method is holding onto something and increasing the size. What I've found is if I make a copy of the 3D file, delete the Terrain model, then do the export to graphics/2D export it doesn't carry over whatever is causing the size increase. The example above resulted in a 30mb 2D file going that route. I hate adding steps to our workflows- especially when it involves creating more copies of files. I was hoping to find a way to do a File-> Export 2D from within the 3D file that just stripped out all intelligence, Terrain Models, 3D models, etc.

    With SS4 when I do the File-> Export 2D it creates the file, but when I try to open that 2D file the software just hangs up and never fully loads it. Doing the export to graphics step doesn't seem to increase the file size, but it isn't really reduced either. It stays roughly the same, but this file can be opened. I will upload the SS3 3D file.