Colour

ISODRAFT Reference Manual

Recommendations for Importing DXF files from ISODRAFT into MicroStation : Colour

There is no explicit colour information in the ISODRAFT DXF file. The AVEVA E3D™ colour information is implicit. This is because of a convention used, which associates a layer name with a colour. This means that layer name GT_n in the DXF file means AVEVA E3D™ colour n. Thus all objects with the same colour are on the same DXF layer.

In MicroStation an incoming DXF file turns on a default colour table that appears to be the default colour table used by AutoCAD:

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Individual objects have the default colour value 6 (on a scale starting at 0) which translates to the AutoCAD default 7 (on a scale starting at 1).

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The colour value is white so everything is white and there can never be any discrimination between colours.

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Symbology is not set for any object, so when it is turned on everything changes to red (0), which is 1 on the AutoCAD default table.

The AVEVA E3D™ colour information in the DXF file delivered as ‘GT_’ layer names may be translated to MicroStation level values by use of the layer/level mapping file used in the import process.

The default file for this is: dwglevel.tbl (in ..\Bentley\Workspace\system\tables\dwg). Thus AVEVA E3D™ colours 1 ‑ 12 (Layers GT_1 to GT_2) may be made manifest in the DGN file as levels 1 - 12 by additional entries to this file:


Layer in DXF file	Level
GT_1	1
GT 2	2
….	….
GT_12	12

In order to produce true AVEVA E3D™ colours in MicroStation DGN files, it will be necessary to provide a ‘key-in’ command as a mdl (MicroStation Development Language) function that will map the DGN levels to AVEVA E3D™ colours.