Good morning, all.
Does anyone have any recommendations for which application would be best to view DGN files for employees in field? I would love to enable our field crews (survey, environmental, construction, other) to open a DGN with its references attached and be able to view the file. Even better would be location awareness with the files that are geolocated. We have played around with a couple different options, but so far it is cumbersome and usually not worth the effort.
Any ideas?
Thanks,Ken
Hi Ken,
I’ve typically seen Bentley’s iTwin or ESRI’s ArcGIS Online used for this purpose to review designs on projects. They’re web-based platforms that allow you to import designs and x-refs from a variety of sources. iTwin can be setup to be linked directly to the ProjectWise environment and has the added civil functionality that allows a user to cut sections, annotate key information and extract quantities. These web-based platforms are easier to use and access, and your field crew could avoid the steep learning curve required for software like MicroStation or OpenRoads.
Ashwin
Ashwin has some good ideas here, Ken, but what about Bentley View? I believe it is still free and allows one to view, measure, etc dgn files without getting directly into the CADD environment and learning curves.
www.bentley.com/.../
Best Regards,
Mark
Thank you both for your insight. We've played a bit with ESRI to make this work, but the way we currently do it is too cumbersome to be worth the effort. I think we can work to refine that a bit. I've only just barely looked at iTwins and honestly just don't know enough about it to see if that's a better approach or not. The biggest drawback of using Bentley View is that it isn't location aware, but it would be a familiar interface for some of our staff that already use MicroStation/ORD.
Thanks again!
Ken, for location awareness we use Avenza Maps. Just print your basefiles with everything attached to a massive PDF. A Geographic Coordinate System is required, and check your PLTCFG to make sure that the geo stuff is turned on. The PDF doesn't have to be a realistic paper size; the larger the better. Avenza has the extra benefit of being able to work offline so people can still use it in areas with no/poor cell service.