Microstation

General Feedback & Requests
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1

How does one go about requesting Datasmith for Microstation .DGN files?

2

The current status is:

  1. the support is not stable. The third party provider marks its support as alpha.
  2. ATM UE only support DGN v7 format and 3d files only.
    => This is why the support is not tested by our QAs and is deactivated by default

If you still want to try you can run the CVAR

ds.CADTranslator.EnableUnsupportedCADFormats true

first thing when you start your project and then try to import your DGN file.

3

Thank you. I’ve never used DirectLink, so don’t yet know how it works. In my case, would I need a Datasmith exporter for Microstation? Who is the third party who “marks its support as alpha”, and what does that mean? Where do I enter that CVAR string?
Sorry for the questions - but is this even worth trying, and if not - how do I request development on this so that it can work in the same way as it does for other CAD vendors?

4

TLDR:
The direct and simple answer is UE does not import dgn files.
The more detailed answer is I do not think you will be able to import dgn file the way you want in UE. Because DGN is not tested, if it works it will only be with V7 files and for 3D content in the file (no 2D layout imports)

=> I would recommend to get another file format out of microstation: dwg or dxf and try to import that instead.

Now you are welcome to try.

  1. start your project, do not use datasmith yet.
  2. Type the command here, and press enter

ds.CADTranslator.EnableUnsupportedCADFormats true

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  1. Start a datasmith import, the .dgn format should now be in the list

DirectLink is a way to push imports from DCC to UE or Twinmotion through Datasmith. That works only with DCCs that have Datasmith exporter plugins: Revit, Rhino, Sketchup, Archicad, Solidworks …
There is no Datasmith Exporter plugins for Mircrostation, or most of the other CAD software.

In that case you have to import the corresponding file: .dgn, .jt, .catproduct, .wire, etc. directly in Unreal through Datasmith.

For some file format we do the full import through UE, for some others, like CAD, we will use a third party library to read and convert the file. In that case feature limitation can come both from features not available in the 3rd party software or from UE because it does not yet use the latest version of that library or it does not use all the features of that library. E.g. even if a library can read 2D data of a CAD format, UE would not use it.

The library used for reading most CAD format in UE is Techsoft Hoops Exchange

5

Thanks for your explanation - as I’m only working with Twinmotion, I don’t think I’m on the right track here. I currently use FBX exports from Microstation, which is fine, but was hoping the elusive “one-click synchronization” was available.
Thanks again,