Synchronizing Reference Levels


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    Product(s):  

     MicroStation

    Version(s):  

     MicroStation 2025

    Product Area(s): 

    Levels

    Environment(s):  

      

    Original Author:  

    Regie Wallace

     

    Purpose

    There are various settings that can impact the display of levels in file, model or attached reference. It can be impacted from a level library file or even a reference file and while these can be useful they can 

    Overview:  

    Let's focus on levels that come from DGN library files or from reference files. It must first be understood that while any level that is not active can be turned on and off, this can be different when turning on and off levels in both reference and nested references. In addition to the local DGN Levels, levels can also be propagated from the attached DGN Libraries or from the attached References. Users must understand that with exception of the active level the properties of all other levels can only be altered.

    A level in a reference file that was attached as 'on' can be turned 'off'.

    The image above shows that, 'Global Display' of a level in a reference attachment is modified (set to off). A dot appears in the Modified column of the Level Manager, when one or more attributes are modified and it is different from its source.

    The level does not exist in the current file the source of level is coming from the attached reference. Turning off the display of the reference level is in fact overriding the display of the level display setting. This is why the dot appears in Modified column.

    Reference levels do not exist in the master File. Turning off the global display of the reference levels in master file is in fact overriding the reference level display setting. This is why the dot appears in the Modified column indicating that something is deviating (override) from the original. This can at times lead to some confusion about the level display settings for reference files not being maintained between sessions of MicroStation or when closing and re-opening DGN after making changes.

    Here are some of the potential causes for the display of references to appear differently when re-opening a file:

    Reference level override settings

    Level of reference have been turned off, if the file is closed and re-open the level will be turned back on. If this occurs you first want to make sure that the reference file level overrides have been set to ON to allow this functionality in the master file. If you go to the key-in Window and type in: SET REFLEVELOVERRIDES ON, this will turn this setting on so that any override change for the reference file made in the master file will remain. You can check to see what the master file is currently set to by typing in: SET REFLEVELOVERRIDES and then selecting enter. The value will appear in the Message Center. 

    If the level display in the attached reference is changed in the reference file, this will reflect in the master file. 

    The reference level override setting allows you to keep or discard the overridden information. E.g., when this is set to OFF (Key-in: SET REFLEVELOVERRIDES OFF) in the master file; and in this changed state (global display is set to OFF for Reference Levels in the master file. If the file is closed and re-opened, then the changes will be restored back (Global Display is set back to 'ON'). And, if you set Reference file Level override setting to ON (Key-in: SET REFLEVELOVERRIDES ON), then any changes made to the property of reference levels in the master file will persist. You can verify the current state of this setting by Key-in: SET REFLEVELOVERRIDES. When executed, the current state appears in the Message Center (e.g., Reference Level Overrides: ON). Reference Level Override setting is set to ON by Default.

    Further when the default model is attached as a reference to the sheet models (now considered as master) and the reference level global display is changed in the default model, then these changes will reflect in the Sheet Models. This effect is seen only when the Reference Level Override setting is set to ON and not when set to OFF.

    Nested Reference

    A nested reference attachment is a reference file/model that is attached to the immediate reference attachment at specific nesting depth (maximum allowed is 99). E.g., sheet models (Sheet1, Sheet2 and Sheet3 etc.). A nested reference is a file attachment that is already attached to another file, let's call that the parent file, but will show up in the reference dialog.

    Synchronizing Reference Level Property

    There are various ways in MicroStation where the graphics from the reference files can be synchronized back to the source files in the master file. This can give mixed results if you are not aware setting in your configuration variables settings in your workspace. Let say that you have confirmed that the 'set reflevel overrides' is set on. You have turned off some levels in the in both the reference (parent) and the nested (child) reference. You close your file and re-open at a later time and the levels have know turned back on.

    In some cases this might be the expected behavior, but what if you wanted to levels to remain off.

     

     

    When a MicroStation design file used as a reference has its own attachments, the files attached to the parent file become nested references. The links between these files can be maintained through many levels (depths) of nesting, so that if you open only one file, you can view the contents of many files.

    E.g., sheet models (Sheet1, Sheet2 and Sheet3 etc.) that are created in the MASTER.dgn has Reference attachment of the default model, while this model also has Reference attachment of 3 models from the external files (REF1.dgn, REF2.dgn and REF3.dgn) respectively. In this case these 3 models act as a nested reference of the sheet models.

    The significance of this is when this attachment is made the level display of the nested file cannot be controlled in the master file (File 3.dgn)

    By Default, users are restricted to edit nested reference level properties (as shown in the image above, these properties are disabled for the editing). Setting configuration variable MS_LEVEL_EDIT_NESTED_ATTACHMENT_LEVELS = 1 enables this editing. User needs to close and restart MicroStation session to enable this setting.

    The "display override" option, listed in the Reference Dialog Box, controls how reference display, locate, snap, raster reference display, and level view display (not global display or global freeze) are handled for nested reference files. So, for nested reference files, in the reference dialog box, the on/off of the display of the reference, the on/off of the reference locate and the on/off of the reference snap are controlled according to the "display override" option.

    See MicroStation - Display Overrides setting in the reference attachment dialog box - Communities for more information.

    Synchronizing Levels to Master Model to other Models

    You can impact the level display from master model or default model to the sheets where the model has been attached. Saved views or dynamic views that are manually are automatically created through annotation tools can also reflect a snapshot or level state that can be maintained when the design model is attached to a non-default model, e.g., drawing model or sheet model. Let look the manual process of doing a self-attachment the default model to a sheet model.

    To do this manually:

    Create the sheet model.

    Use the 'Attach Tool' to attach reference,

     

    Be sure to set the 'Nested Attachments' setting to 'Live Nesting and the 'Visible Edges' setting to 'Dynamic'

    This will bring in the default model and all the external reference attachments. The display will be same in the newly created sheet as in the default model. This process can be done multiple times for different sheets in the file.

    With 'Visible Edges' set to dynamic, allows for the propagation of level mask (on/off) display to be carried from the default model to the sheet(s). 

    Go to the default model and turn off the global display of a level e.g., "REF1_LEV1" the same level will be turned off in the sheet. This is done the level synchronization.

    The same thing can be done with level symbology and override setting can also be carried through. As long as the changes are made from design model to sheet model the reference levels will stay in synchronization of each other.

    Using these tools can ensure consistency between your models which is important for design, printing and converting to other formats.

     
     
     

    Additional Notes