convert an AutoCAD file to a Microstation file?

[viennawriter]

Hi, I am not a CAduser, but someone who is managing a CAD project whereby we need to covert the files to Microstation. My AutoCAD person has limited experiece doing this so I thought I would turn to you for your expertise.

I've read that you can convert AutoCAD files to .dxf and import into Microstation but will that keep the integrity of the file? As you guys probably know, you cannot covert directly from one to the other because fonts, line weights, etc. don't translate well.

I was wondering if can get some advice as to how to do this and is the process easy or is it timeconsuming.

Thank you all.

[rkmcswain]

No matter how you slice it, there is no perfect conversion to/from DGN/DWG. DXF files have little bearing on the problem.

Microstation can read/write .DWG files, -or- are you having to provide DGN to fulfill a contract? If the latter, you will probably find that it's better to do the work in the required file format up front than to try and convert later.

There are batch converters out there (google it), or AutoCAD Map can directly export DGN files.

Regardless of how it's done, expect problems.

[dbroada]

have to agree there. We had a contract that required microstation files. As we only have AutoCAD that's what we did them in and used a batch converter. It got MOST of the way there. The one thing it couldn't handle was extended font sets. Not normally a problem but as the final text was in Portuguese (for Brazil) our client got upset that all the accents were being missed off. Despite insurances from the software supplier this was never resolved. The drawings have now either been finished in brazil or still contain spelling mistakes.

[viennawriter]

I really appreciated the responses listed here. I had a feeling this was the case and I may actually go with a company in TX that does this type of conversion. We do need to covert to fulfill a contract and since we did not have anyone who was a microstation user, we used our CAD guys to do the project.

Thanks again!

[rkmcswain]

I really appreciated the responses listed here. I had a feeling this was the case and I may actually go with a company in TX that does this type of conversion. We do need to covert to fulfill a contract and since we did not have anyone who was a microstation user, we used our CAD guys to do the project.

Thanks again!

Our company went down this road several years ago. First a small project where they thought about working in ACAD and convert to MS. Then for the next project, they thought about having ACAD users 'learn' MS. In the end the realization was to hire MS users who knew MS, and do it in MS in the first place.

[wherestheanykey]

I agree this is a bit tricky and the conversion may depend on what the client requires in Microstation.

In my perticular case I used AutoCAD's DGNEXPORT command, but before using I had to do the following in the dwg file:
1- Make sure there are no xrefs referenced. Block can be used. All entities have to be individual, and model space is used.
2- For site plans, make sure "north is pointing upward and the plan is in UCS coordinates. This means if looking at the drawing normally and north was pointing say to the right, then site plan should be pointing up and everything else (text, notes, title block, etc) should be rotated to the right.
3- If you list any entitly is should be either a block, indivudual line, or text ... again all in model space.
4- After this the use the DGNEXPORT command.

Hope this helps.

I really appreciated the responses listed here. I had a feeling this was the case and I may actually go with a company in TX that does this type of conversion. We do need to covert to fulfill a contract and since we did not have anyone who was a microstation user, we used our CAD guys to do the project.

Thanks again!