Quite a few of my clients either use Microstation or know someone who does for transportation projects. I’m not here to even remotely discuss pros or cons of either one – just to recognize that the two programs do have to coexist in certain locations. For years, Microstation has been able to open and save a DWG file. Autodesk users who worked on any Map-based product (Map3D, Land Desktop, Civil3D) could used the Map export to DGN function, with mixed results. Well, Civil 3D 2008 (actually, even plain AutoCAD 2008) can now save a V8 DGN file. True interoperability is closer than ever before.

However, don’t get too excited. It won’t export Civil 3D objects. They’re not visible in the DGN file. There’s an extra step for us – we have to export to AutoCAD first, which explodes the objects into native AutoCAD lines, arcs, text, etc, THEN export that AutoCAD file to a DGN.