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HowTo display.dgn-Files

#1

Hi all,

I need to integrate CAD-files from Bentley Microstation (*.dgn-file) into or maps.
In earlier versions this was not possible but I got the information that it now should work.
Can someone give me some information about what needs to be done in order to be able to display those files?

According to this page the Microstation dgn format is supported
https://docs.thinkgeo.com/products/desktop-maps/supported-data-formats/

Thanks and with best regards
Peter

#2

Sorry I forgot ot mention: I am talking about dgn-files version 8 or higher.
With best regards
Peter

#3

Hi Peter,

I’ll be glad to try and help out. But I’m curious, where did you hear that .dgn are now supported? Was this through the CADFeatureLayer from this blog post or our supported data formats? Or did you see it somewhere else on our website?

I believe .dgn are the less preferred data format for CAD. But that being said, if you can attach a sample file, or send one to support@thinkgeo.com, I’d be glad to take a look and see if it’s possible to render.

Thanks,

John

#4

Hi John,
thank you for your reply. Microstation DGNv8 format is mentioned in section “Additional Formats using the ThinkGeo GDAL Library” (Vector support) on your page
https://docs.thinkgeo.com/products/desktop-maps/supported-data-formats/

By this I would expect to be able to use that format. I´ll attach a sample file as soon as I´m back in the office.

With best regards
Peter

#5

Hi John,
please find attached a simple sample dgn-file and screenshot of what is expected.
The position of the elements is near
2545084, 5646706
(Gauss-Kruger, West-Germany)

I hope this helps.
With best regards
Peterdgn_sample.zip (61.7 KB)

#6

Hi Peter,

I think there may be an issue with your .dgn file. I’ve tried QGIS, Grass(based on GDAL) and also debugged into the GDAL code directly where it does an OGR.Open() where OGR fails silently and returns null.

Based on what I can see, there must be some issue with the .dgn file. Do you have any more detail son this .dgn file? I assume it’s vector data, right? And have you been able to get it to open in any other GIS applications?

Thanks,
John

Thanks,
John

#7

Hi John,

this dgn-file has been created with Microstation version 8i and can be opened with that tool. I observe the behavior than you. For sureness you find attached another dgn file which has been created whith the actual Microstation version (together with a screenshout of what the file contains).
Please note that the provided dgn files are of version 8 and higher. As far as I know GDal version 2.2 is necessary in order to be able dgn files of that versions with Gdal and an appropriate driver is needed. I´m not sure which version is used in ThinkGeo actually?
But I would also expect that dgn files can be opened using the CADLayer because dgn is also a CAD format.

Thank you for your support
With best regards
Peter
test_dgn.zip (1.8 MB)

#8

Hi Peter,

I checked into this with our product team and we do not currently support .dgn. I’ve updated our ‘supported data format’ pages in our docs and I’m sorry for the confusion.

The issue is that while GDAL does work with .dgn, it requires ODA libraries and and ODA subscription. We do keep our ODA membership current, but it’s a pretty big task to also add support for .dgn and all of our other customers that are using CAD files are on .dwg and .dfx.

I’ve added dgn support to our enhancement tracker and it could be included in a future release.

In searching the web, it seems like .dwg and .dfx are much more common. Does your CAD program have a way to export to these formats? Or even to shapefile or geojson or other common format? That may be a good interim solution.

Thanks,
John

#9

Hi John,

thank your the answer.
Unfortunately the possibility to integrate dgn files inot the map was one of the main reasons why we upgraded ThinkGeo to version 13, because Microstation is used by many departments in our company and it would be very helpful to be able to combine their work directly with a map in ThinkGeo.
Is it possible to give us an idea when using dgn-files would be possible?

With best regards
Peter

#10

Hi Peter,

I have added it to the enhancement tracker and will talk with the product team again, but I know MAUI is our top priority for the upcoming 13.2 release in November. I think at best this would be put in the 13.3 release next year.

In the mean-time, it seems like Microstation has a ‘Save As’ function where these .dgn files can be saved as .dwg. That is probably the best option in the short-term.

Thanks,
John

#11

Hi John,
thank you for that information.
We know that there exists the function “Save As” in Microstation but lots of dgn-files are created automatically in our system and the idea was that these dgn-files can be integrated in a map directly without the user having to convert them manually.

So I think we have to wait for next year.

With best regards
Peter

#12

Thanks for your patience, Peter.