1.0 How To Use The Plug-In

2.0 Export Capabilities

3.0 Supported Versions and Platforms

4.0 Export Options


1.0 How To Use The Plug-in

DGN2HSF is a plug-in application for MicroStation that let's you convert your DGN file to HSF(HOOPS Stream File). To use this export capability, follow the steps as described below:

  1. For MicroStation V8 users, copy dgn2hsf_V8.ma and dgn2hsf_V8_vc80.dll to the location of your Microstation installation under the "mdlapps" directory. Both dgn2hsf_V8.ma and dgn2hsf_V8_vc80.dll can be found in your HOOPS installation in the directory path /demo/plugins/microstation/bin/nt_i386_vc80.

    OR

    For MicroStation V8 XM users, copy dgn2hsf_V8XM.ma and dgn2hsf_V8XM_vc80.dll to the location of your Microstation installation under the "mdlapps" directory. Both dgn2hsf_V8XM.ma and dgn2hsf_V8XM_vc80.dll can be found in your HOOPS installation in the directory path /demo/plugins/microstation/bin/nt_i386_vc80.

  2. To load the plug-in, launch MicroStation's MDL Application manager by going to the Utilities menu and selecting the "MDL Applications" menu option. When the manager dialog appears, find DGN2HSF in the Available Applications group box, select it and then press the "Load" button. Another way to load the DGN2HSF plug-in is to define an environment variable MS_DGNAPPS=DGN2HSF, which will enable automatic loading of the DGN2HSF plug-in when MicroStation starts up. To confirm that DGN2HSF is properly loaded, the DGN2HSF entry should be present in the "Loaded Applications" list in the MDL Application manager dialog.

  3. To export a DGN file to HSF, load your DGN file into Microstation. Then go to the "Utilities" menu and select the "Key-in" menu option. When the "Key-in" dialog appears, select "dgn2hsf." When the export is done, a dialog box saying "DGN2HSF Export done!" should appear. If the export was successful, you will find the new HSF file in the same directory as the original file. It will have the same name as the original DGN file with an additional .hsf appended to it. For example, if your DGN file was named example.dgn, the exported file would be named example.dgn.hsf. Note that you should ensure the directory where your original DGN model resides has write permissions.

2.0 Export Capabilities

The following is a list of entities/attributes that can be exported:

ARC_ELM BSPLINE_SURFACE_ELM BSPLINE_CURVE_ELM CELL_HEADER_ELM* CMPLX_SHAPE_ELM
CONIC_ELM CONE_ELM CURVE_ELM ELLIPSE_ELM LINE_ELM
LINE_STRING_ELM MESH_HEADER_ELM SHAPE_ELM SHARED_CELL_ELM SOLID_ELM
SURFACE_ELM TEXT_NODE_ELM TEXT_ELM AutoCAD Xdata XRefs
*This is particularly useful when it is associated with a smart/feature solid or solids which have BRep data.

Geometric entities not supported: None

Line styles, patterns and thicknesses are not supported. Some advanced material properties such as per-vertex-coloring, environment maps, etc... are not supported.

3.0 Supported Versions and Platforms

The DGN2HSF plug-in is supported for following two versions of MicroStation on Windows XP. It runs with HOOPS 15.50 or higher. The HOOPS components required are HOOPS/3dGS, HOOPS/Stream and HOOPS/MVO.

4.0 Export Options

The MicroStation Plug-In allow you to set several export options: