Creating a MicroStation Alignment Drawing (v8)

Before you begin

If this is the first time an MX drawing has been transferred in this project, check the project directory for a file with the project name followed by a .MSS extension.  If this file does not exist, see a member of the CAD/D support staff before continuing this procedure.

Creating the Drawing

Before creating the MX display, check to make sure the proper style and feature sets are defined for the model to be drawn.  Select Model Defaults... from the Tools menu.  Select the appropriate model and click the Edit... button to modify the sets.

From the Edit Model Style and Feature Set panel, check the box labeled Lock Style and Feature Set if it isn't already checked.  Then select the ^... button next to the style set name.  For a proposed alignment drawing select mxroad.pss.  The feature set should update automatically to mxroad.fns.  Click OK to save this information.

The alignment drawing in MicroStation is created from an MX draw file created by the NHAlign add-in. See the documentation for more details.

Rename or delete any previously created .DGN file that has the same name as the MX drawing to transfer.  Enter MicroStation and select the appropriate project.

To start MfM, hit the F3 function key (NHDOT users), or load two MDL Applications (SP.ma & MfM.ma).  If you are not a regular MX in MicroStation user, please read this caution statement.  Expect to be prompted to save and/or compress the drawing, possibly more than once.  It may also be necessary to Fit View.  If no graphics appear, see the information in the MX FAQ.

After the drawing is imported, levels need to be attached from the appropriate level library.  From the Level Manager dialog box, select Levels -> Attach... to obtain the Attach Level Library panel.  Choose the level library (*.csv) that goes with the newly created drawing.  For alignment drawings, this is typically ALI.csv.

Next, click on the Update Levels button (the rightmost of the 3 buttons), this will set the correct default values for each level in the drawing.

Once this process is complete, Exit MicroStation.

Editing the Drawing

Do not attempt to run the following macro in the same MicroStation session that created the drawing.  It will not work properly.  If you have not exited MicroStation since the previous step was completed, do so now then open the drawing again.

At this time the drawing needs to be edited to create the alignment as a complex chain with arcs instead of chords.  This is done with the NHAlign macro.  This macro can be started from the NHDOT pulldown menu or use the key-in vba run modNHAlign.main.  The macro will prompt for the name of the alignment report file created by the MX add-in.  At this point, the macro will plot the alignments and modify the text associated with them.  It will also delete unnecessary graphics from the drawing.  This program can be followed by the CurveData VBA program  to add details to the alignment curves. 

Note: At this time, the NHAlign program does not correct levels of the MSL_1 cells. They must be manually moved to the "cp" (curve point) level associated with the type of alignment you are working with.

When transferring 20-scale Imperial and 1:250 metric projects, a MicroStation macro must be run to adjust linestyle scales and cell sizes.  From the Utilities menu, select  Macro => Macros… => modEXDUpdate.Main.

If this data needs to be copied onto another drawing containing previously created alignments follow these steps:

• open the earlier alignment drawing
• attach the new drawing as a reference file
• select the file in the References dialog box
• use the Merge Into Master command to add the newly created alignment to the earlier alignment drawing. 

Using the Copy Attachment command instead of Merge Into Master will lose tag data attached to the alignment.

Known Issues

Occasionally, transfers from MX will create point elements on the MicroStation drawing.  They can usually be deleted by running the delpt macro.

If you receive an error stating "Error: 2002", there may be a problem with the seed file used to create the drawing.  It usually means the tag sets are not defined in the file.  See a member of the CAD/D support staff.