I had high hopes of writing to my blog before I left for Australia but I just plain ran out of time! Packing for 2 ½ weeks, paying all those pesky bills, not to mention a fun birthday extravaganza for my son Joshua just took up too much time. Last week I also recorded the next screencast for AutoCAD 2008 which although it sucked up two days of my life – should be a great means of helping everyone get up to speed as quickly as possible- I can hardly wait! The last screencast on AutoCAD 2007 had over 1000 downloads a day – and that includes weekends and holidays! A huge success (and thank you for all the very nice emails about it!).
I’m off for quite a whirlwind tour of Australia and New Zealandpromoting the next release of AutoCAD and Inventor 2008! Though the schedule is a big harried, my travel mates are top notch and make all the long days so much more enjoyable. I’ll definitely be posting the Rod, Manoj and Lynn adventures as we go. I’m sure it all sounds so glamorous flying to so many great destinations but realize that we mostly get to see airports and hotels due to the schedule…hardly a vacation!
On to a Hip Tip on converting to DGN:
I just finished a Cadalyst column that dives into the ins and outs of importing/exporting to DGN but I thought I’d throw out a high level view of the process here in my blog. This will at least get some of you moving in the right direction, for more detailed information stay tuned to Cadalyst.
The DGNEXPORT command makes simple work of exporting your DWG design data to V8 DGN format. You’ll need to clarify a few questions, such as seen below to ensure you get the best results possible. You’ll need to determine whether you want all those XREFs to be converted to DGN files as well, or if you’d prefer them to be bound to your drawing file first and then the entire file be exported to one DGN file. Or you can simply choose to ignore the Xrefs altogether.
Picking the proper seed file is the clincher here. Seed files are similar to AutoCAD Template files and they contain the proper default units and settings. This will definitely make or break the translation process. If you already have a seed file that is exactly what you want, there is no need to use one of the four that come with AutoCAD. And since Microstation treats 2D files differently from 3D files, you’ll need to pick the appropriate 2D or 3D seed file as well.
Last but not least you’ll need to determine if you want to match the master units in AutoCAD to the same in Microstation (for example – 1 AutoCAD drawing unit = Feet or Meters ) or to sub units (1 AutoCAD drawing unit =inches or millimeters). Obviously this will also have a bearing on whether or not your translation file exports to a respectable DGN file.
I’m in Brisbane now – the first leg of the tour begins officially tomorrow! Wish me luck!!! G’Day to you all…
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