Before you begin

Location maps are being used on larger projects to show the area surrounding the project.  Typically, they include roadway, hydrology, rail, and town boundaries.  They may also include points of interest in the project area. Summary of the process

Create a new drawing to contain the location map

Attach GIS reference files

Fence the desired project area

Copy to the new drawing

Edit details

Add titles, scale, etc.

Create the new drawing

• Start MicroStation and create a new drawing to contain the completed map. The name will typically be in the form 12345LLC.DGN.
• Attach the alignment drawing as a reference to this new drawing and issue the "Fit View" command to display the project area.
• Attach N:\cadd\cadd\GIS_to_Microstationv8\all.dgn as a reference file. In the Attach Reference Settings dialog box under Nested Attachments change No Nesting to Live Nesting and Depth : 1. (Ignore the warning about the file location not being part of the reference file path. These files are only temporarily attached to create the map data within the LOC file.)
• At this point you should see the data from the GIS maps included in the view.
• Turn off the alignment reference.
• Create a fence around the area to be displayed on the location map.
• In the reference file manager, select the Clip Boundary option from the Tools menu. Make sure the Method is set to Fence.
• With the all.dgn file selecting in the reference file manager, select the Merge Into Master option on the Tools menu. This will copy the elements within the clip boundary into your current drawing.
• The GIS drawing will be detached during the copy process.
• Save the file.

Editing the Drawing

The new drawing will need to be edited before it will be acceptable for display purposes. Editing will include changing the levels, colors, and line weights of many features. Text for road names, river & pond names, and town names will need to be added or modified. Some of this may have been included in the GIS data.

After the GIS data has been edited some additional details should be added. This includes:

• Project name and number 
• Scale bar
• North arrow
• Highlighting of proposed work area
• Fill color for ponds and large rivers

Currently, there are no standards for these drawings. Some suggestions are listed below. Each of these items should be on a different level.

Line weights, linestyle scales and text heights will vary depending on the scale of the final plot. Some recommendations are provided. These are based on a 1"=500' (1:6000) scale drawing. You should alter these values as necessary for your drawing.