Autodesk Civil Series 3 White Paper: Handling DGN Files
V. Importing From a DGN File
Autodesk Land Desktop has importing capabilities that allow you to map specified DGN levels to DWG layers. Find the Import command by clicking Map>Tools>Import. The Import command has controls for
• Input layer
• Drawing layer
• Data
• Points
(etc., etc.)
VI. Importing Issues
Conversions of DGN files are not very problematic, but there is usually a degree of cleanup involved. For instance, text size and width commonly have to be adjusted and polylines with a width factor may have to be cleaned. Some converted arcs end up somewhere rotated on the page and may have to be redrawn. Fortunately, most DGN files from the states, cities, and counties are 2D drawings that require little cleanup.
DGN files from departments of transportation typically have a lot of text and symbols in them. Some symbols (cells) do not convert very well. For instance, if the DGN file uses the degree symbol (for instance, 35°), the converted symbol is a question mark (35?). Also, fractions such as “5/16” lose the slash character upon conversion. A hard copy or TIFF file of the original drawing would be needed to verify corrections in the converted file.