Hi Everyone, 

I am trying to create a stand alone VB.NET EXE application that simply opens up MicroStation, pulls some tag information and closes. I have created these types of applications before but not for quite a while so i must be a bit rusty.

I am having issues with the error messages stating "RPC Server Unavailable" and similar. I can also see that once the new Instance is called that nothing is showing in task Manager. So my question is what am i doing wrong for MicroStation not to open?

I have looked at previous projects and the below used to work, but for troubleshooting I have created a new, very bare application just to test this functionality to remove any other potential issues but still having the same problem. I have referenced the MicroStationDGN library in Visual Studio and imported the namespace. The entire code is below. At this stage i'm just trying to get MicroStation to open, then i will add the tag functionality into it once i know im on the right track. I can open MicroStation with no issues from the Start Menu so it is working normally.

The version of MicroStation on this test machine is V8i SS3 (08.11.09.292) - Yes i know its old, but its just the test machine.

Imports MicroStationDGN

Public Class Form1
    Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

        Dim ustn As New MicroStationDGN.Application

        Dim odesignfile As MicroStationDGN.DesignFile

        Try
            odesignfile = ustn.OpenDesignFile("C:\Temp\rob.dgn")
        Catch ex As Exception
            MsgBox(ex.Message)
        End Try

    End Sub
End Class