What's New?
What's New?
What's New?

MicroStation V8 DGN File Format

The MicroStation V8 DGN file format is a superset of both the MicroStation/J (v7) and DWG file formats.

Although prior versions of MicroStation performed all calculations in IEEE double precision floating point, many design coordinates were stored as 32-bit integers. In contrast, MicroStation V8 also stores design coordinates in double precision floating point.

The concept of establishing the DGN file coordinate system by defining master/sub/positional units is retained mainly because it makes the MicroStation V8 conversion process easier and it retains equity in seed files, references, etc. However, in MicroStation V8, there is a great deal of resolution between positional units. This makes DGN file setup considerably less important, because the accuracy in terms of master units is nearly unaffected by unit setup. The use of double precision floating coordinates also gives a design plane that is approximately 2 million times larger in each axis.

A MicroStation V8 DGN file is composed of one or more models. A model is a container for elements.

The MicroStation V8 DGN file format removes all file format-based constraints that were present in previous versions of MicroStation. Here are the specifics: