Hi John & Co. I have recently created a new post on DGN-files and WorkSessions + units.
Is it possible to send files which must not be made publicly available? The DGN-reader must be updated to respect the correct units and the “meta”-descriptions and colors of the MicroStation layers/levels. Currently we only get the Level/Layer numbers and the objects in the layers with individual colors (typical 16 colors and 64 layers) & still no X-refs loaded.
Please send an example file and all of the specific steps to follow to reproduce the problem to tech@mcneel.com
Files sent to tech support are never shared outside of Rhino Development and Testing.
Thanks
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They are in your mail and “for your eyes only”.
I’m not working email support today.
Another Tech will see if they can reproduce the problem and file a defect report.
Thanks
Hi Tim - I just want to make sure I understand what you expect… if you Insert a file that has a 10 by 10 meter box into an existing file that has units in millimeters, what dimensions do you expect the inserted box to be, in millimeters? It looks to me like Rhino is doing the correct thing my making the box 10,000 mm to a side. Are you saying that that is not the result you see, or that it is what you see but it’s wrong, or is the problem something else entirely, that I am too dense to see?
-Pascal
Hi Pascal. I never work in other units than mm regardless the software I use and the size of the project. If Rhino 7 “reads” the provided DGN’s as Meters, that is an error, which must be FIXED before anything else.
AuroCAD 2020 recognize the correct unit (mm) - and does not scale.
OK, but can you answer my question above? I do not have access to Autocad, nor Microstation, I need to know the symptom we are looking for.
-Pascal
Hi Pascal. Unfortunately I don’t have the Technical expertice to dive into SDK’s from OpenDesign.com but I would begin by looking for any sign of a system unit OR assume that the DGN-fileunit is “generic” and neither Meters or millimeters, since making the wrong assumption is causing a major problem. On the DGN-import-options you could consider to allow the user to SELECT the unit to use during import?
I have no experience (or preferences) for working in Meters or Inches. Millimeters are the base-unit of the Metric-system, so neither CM, DM or Meters makes sense to me, and in my experience only causes problems.
I am going to guess that Microstation files use meters and you would like Rhino to assume that they do not use units at all and simply assume the parent file units, or ask as when importing STL files, which have no units… ?
-Pascal
That would work for me. “Unitless” or “generic units” are preferable to having the units wrong.
I have provided a selection of DGN-files to your Tech-mail along with a description of the X-refs.
So, does Microstation use units that you specify when you model there?
I have all the files, but what we really need is the symptom, I think I have that now.
-Pascal
The gridlines in the provided files are spaced with a distance of 3000 units in both X and Y direction.
We have “discontinued” MicroStation and moved to a mix of Rhino (+150 licenses), AutoCAD & Revit.
We need a better DGN importer and would like to assist in any way possible with feedback to make it.
The answer to my last question appears to be that you can indeed set working units in Microstation and that these are not saved in the file unless you specifically save the setting. As far as I can tell. I do not know if that plays a part here. It looks like either the setting is not in the dgn file, or if it is there, Rhino is not reading it - if other apps correctly read the units, then they must be there and we need to see if we can find them and pay attention. I think.
-Pascal
I think the unit-setting is not in the DGN-files and somehow Rhino sets the units to Meters. My guess is that the reason why AutoCAD has no trouble interpreting the files correctly is because the user in AutoCAD can decide which units to use during import, and I always choose mm. AutoCAD also automatically load any nested X-Ref within an X-Ref.
Hi Tim - I understand that you may not have Microstation in house any more, but, just in case, the developer has found a way to get what we think is the correct units, but it would be helpful if we had an example in some units other than mm, feet or non-metric would be ideal but some other metric system would help as well - cm, km…
-Pascal
I might be able to get that from our engineering-department or from the MicroStation reseller here in Scandinavia. Thankyou for your effort
@Erazmataz - thanks, I think we are OK, we had a file stashed away that is in feet. We’ll try the fix and I’ll send you a link to a build to try and you can tell us if we did it right… So, the fix will be, we still do not ask, but we should get the units right.
-Pascal
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