Creating PDF Files Containing Project Explorer Links [CS]



  

This Client Server article is republished in its entirety from 2008 for reference purposes.


ProjectWise InterPlot Organizer is a Windows application for plotting engineering data such as MicroStation DGNs, AutoCAD DWGs, raster files, and Bentley Digital Print Format (DPR) files.


In addition, ProjectWise InterPlot Organizer supports plot sets created from engineering data and specifications documents. Specifications documents include Microsoft Word documents (.DOC), Microsoft Excel documents (.XLS), Microsoft PowerPoint documents (.PPT), and Adobe Portable Document Format (.PDF) documents.

Using MicroStation V8 XM Link Sets, PDF documents created with ProjectWise InterPlot Organizer containing both engineering data and specifications documents can contain links to areas of interest within the same drawing, or to another engineering drawing, or between an engineering drawing and a specifications document.

Note: Only MicroStation V8 Link Sets to design files, Microsoft Word files, and Microsoft Excel files will be valid in the PDF file created by ProjectWise InterPlot Organizer.

Any links created with Project Explorer inside MicroStation V8 XM Edition will be retained when you publish a design file to a PDF document. These links enable you to link an element to a saved view, to a reference file, to a heading or style in a Word document, or to an Excel spreadsheet.

Configuring Project Explorer

  1. Create a new design file to contain the Project Explorer information (projectindex.dgn).
  2. Open ar1.dgn (C:\Program Files\ProjectWise InterPlot Organizer\learn) in MicroStation.
  3. Select File > Project Explorer.
  4. Click the Manage Link Sets icon (magnifying glass). The Link Sets dialog displays.
  5. Using the magnifying glass, choose projectindex.dgn. Selected File (projectindex.dgn) displays in the pull-down list.
  6. Click the New Link Set icon (first icon) and create a link set name (ProjectA). Click OK.
  7. Close the Link Sets dialog box.
  8. In the Project Explorer dialog box, click the New Link icon.
  9. Select the following files: ar1.dgn, ar2.dgn, specifications.doc. Click Open.
  10. Select the files and select OK.
  11. Create a saved view in ar1.dgn.
  12. To link a saved view to an element, expand to the saved view in Project Explorer, select the saved view, right-click, and select Add Link to Element. Select the element to which you want to attach the link.
  13. To link another file to an element, expand to the design file ar2.dgn in Project Explorer, select the model ANSI D, right-click, and click Add Link to Element. Select the element to which you want to attach the link.
  14. To link a document to an element, expand to the document specifications.doc in Project Explorer, select the document heading, right-click, and click Add Link to Element. Select the element to which you want to attach the link.

Using Organizer to create the PDF file

  1. Open ProjectWise InterPlot Organizer. In the Welcome to ProjectWise InterPlot Organizer dialog, click Create a new plot set from files you select. Click OK.
  2. Click Add and choose ar1.dgn, ar2.dgn, and specifications.doc. Click Open.
  3. Once the files have been added to the plot set, save the plot set by clicking File > Save.
  4. Select all plots in ProjectWise InterPlot Organizer using control A.
  5. To create the PDF file, click File > Export PDF.
  6. In the Export PDF dialog box, click Create one PDF file containing all plots.
  7. In the Export PDF dialog box, select Invoke PDF viewer when done. This step is optional.
  8. Click Create PDF.
  9. Type in the file name, and then click Save.
  10. Adobe displays the PDF document containing the plans and specifications documents. If you hover over the elements that were linked in MicroStation, the hand changes to a finger pointer. This indicates a hot link. Click the hot link to jump to the area specified above in Project Explorer.

Configuring PDFMaker to convert Word headings and styles to bookmarks

You must configure Adobe PDFMaker in Microsoft Word to convert headings or styles to bookmarks. By default, headings 1-9 are selected when you choose the Convert Word Headings to Bookmarks option. If you create a design link to a user-defined Word style, you must be sure to enable the Convert Word Styles to Bookmarks option and then select the user-defined style from the Acrobat PDFMaker dialog.

To configure PDFMaker to convert Word headings or styles to bookmarks

  1. From Microsoft Word, select Adobe PDF > Change Conversion Settings.
  2. Select the Bookmarks tab. The Acrobat PDFMaker dialog displays.
  3. Select Convert Word Headings to Bookmarks and/or Convert Word Styles to Bookmarks.
  4. Under Bookmark, select the headings or styles you want converted.
  5. Click OK to save the settings.

To configure Adobe Acrobat to add bookmarks and links

  1. From Adobe Acrobat Professional, select Edit > Preferences.
  2. In the Preferences dialog box, select Convert to PDF. Under Converting to PDF, select Microsoft Office, and then click Edit Settings.
  3. Select Add bookmarks and links to Adobe PDF file and click OK.
  4. The Adobe PDF Security setting should be set to None in order to create composite PDF documents.
  5. To dismiss the Preferences dialog, click OK.

You must use MicroStation 8.9.x as your print engine in ProjectWise InterPlot Organizer for the design set links to be propagated in the PDF output file.

See Also

Client Server Archive

MicroStation Desktop TechNotes and FAQs

Comments or Corrections?

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Original Author: Bentley Technical Support Group