Tips & Tricks — Update your levels to match new V8 standards: Part II.

By Rick Sewell, Customer Support
In last month’s issue of MicroStation Today, you saw how to create a CSV file (from a design file) that contains all of the level symbology of that design file, neatly laid out. Now see how to update levels in other design files with that CSV file.
Update your design file levels from a CSV file using only MicroStation.
This is the usual method for updating the levels of an individual design file using a CSV file:

1. Load MicroStation and open a design file that you would like to update the levels in.
2. Choose Settings|Level|Manager or just select the Level Manager icon on your “Primary Tools” palette to load the Level Manager dialog box.


One way to load the Level Manager is from the “Primary Tools” palette.

3. From the Level Manager dialog box choose Levels|Import.
4. At the bottom left of the “Import Levels” dialog box is an option labeled “List Files of Type:” Choose “Excel CSV Files [*.csv]“.
5. From the “Import Levels” dialog box navigate to and select your CSV file.

Update your design file levels from a CSV file using MicroStation and Global File Changer
This method allows you to update as many design files as you need to with a CSV file in one shot.

1. Using Windows Explorer, navigate to the folder where you have your CSV file.
2. Right-click in this folder and choose New|Text Document. This will create a “New Text Document.txt”. You can leave this name or change it to anything you want. For the demonstration below, I’ve named the file “MyCSV.key” and saved it in “C:My CSV”.
3. Open your newly created file using Notepad and enter the following two lines:
   level library import “C:My CSVMyCSV.csv” filedesign
   (Change the path and CSV file name to the path and CSV file name that you chose.)


Key files allow you to run any number of MicroStation key-in commands on your files.

4. Save and close the file.
5. Load MicroStation and Global File Changer.


With Global File Changer you can update as many files as you need with a CSV file.

6. Next to the “Design Files:” field, press the button. This will bring up the “Choose Files to Process” dialog box. From this dialog, right-click and click on “Browse for files.”. Navigate to and select any files you want to process. (Note: I recommend running the process on a test file first to make sure it does what you want.)
7. Next to the “Key-in File:” field press the button. Browse to and select the key file you created in step 3.
8. The “Report File:” field is unimportant for the process but does need to be a legal path and file name.
9. Press to process your file(s).

Using Level Manager, you can now see that the levels have been updated in your design files with perfect symbology.
Stay tuned for next month’s tip on how to move elements to your new levels.

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