Civil3D DWG to OpenRoads DGN - Best Conversion Method?

Hi Neil,

Probably not what you are asking, but you can use LandXML for Alignments and Surfaces/Terrains and have a dynamic link between them to keep interoperability as least labor intensive as possible.

If you export your Alignments and Surfaces from c3d and import these into ORD, the ORD model will be linked to the LandXMLs and any future export from c3d to the same LandXML files can be updated in ORD by clicking the "Update Terrain from Source" button for Terrains or reimporting the Geometry. It wont recreate the elements, but resync them (and maintain any links or relationships in your model, but update them accordingly).

Regarding DGN support in AutoCAD/Civil 3D, we've found this to be quite poor, so i'd suggest convertions in the OpenRoads/Microstatiopn environment.

Hi Neil,

Probably not what you are asking, but you can use LandXML for Alignments and Surfaces/Terrains and have a dynamic link between them to keep interoperability as least labor intensive as possible.

If you export your Alignments and Surfaces from c3d and import these into ORD, the ORD model will be linked to the LandXMLs and any future export from c3d to the same LandXML files can be updated in ORD by clicking the "Update Terrain from Source" button for Terrains or reimporting the Geometry. It wont recreate the elements, but resync them (and maintain any links or relationships in your model, but update them accordingly).

Regarding DGN support in AutoCAD/Civil 3D, we've found this to be quite poor, so i'd suggest convertions in the OpenRoads/Microstatiopn environment.

Thanks, Mark.  I just figured out this morning, from the help of Bentley support, that if I open my dwg in Civil3d and then give command 'AeccExportCivilDrawing' and hit enter, a dialog box will popup and ask me to save as a plain dwg.  This saves all of the autocad enabled objects as exploded - which is what I did and then I was able to open the dwg in ORD and view everything and save to dgn or merge to master.  However, The best way to be able to view the objects in ORD and save the dwg to a dgn is through downloading an autocad object enabler software install.  This allows you to view the objects in ord, so you can then save them as a dgn.