Performing Operations Across DGNs and Levels

The Level Manager and Level Display dialog boxes allow you to perform operations that affect multiple selected files and their associated levels. These operations include displaying level names once if multiple occurrences appear in one DGN file and its reference attachments and linking the activities the Level Manager to the display of level information in the Level Display dialog box.

Multiple Target Selection

The Level Manager dialog box allows you to perform tasks over multiple levels and multiple design files/reference attachments.

You can select multiple design files and/or reference attachments from the tree in the Level Manager by holding the left mouse button down and dragging the cursor over the desired files. The levels for all the selected files display in the level list.

Selecting multiple targets

1. From the tree of the Level Manager (or Level Display) dialog box, press and hold down the left mouse button on the first file to be selected.


2. Drag the cursor over any addition files to be included in the selection.


3. Release the left mouse button.
   The selected files are highlighted in the tree and all levels in those files appear in the level list.



Any changes made to a level in the level list affects all the selected files in the tree.

Merge Names

When references are attached to a DGN file, multiple occurrences of the same level name can occur. If Merge Names is checked on the Level Manager Properties dialog box, levels that appear in multiple selected files will only display once in the level list.

Level Manager with Merge Names off

Level Manager with Merge Names on

The top example shows two occurrences of levels named Default, Level 1, and a31#0. The bottom example shows the same levels with Merge Names turned on. Default, Level 1, and a31#0 only appear once.

To turn on Merge Names

1. Right-click in the empty area to the right of the controls at the top of the Level Manager or Level Display dialog box.
   The Properties pop-up menu appears.


2. Click on Properties.
   A Properties dialog box opens.


3. Turn on the Merge Names check box.


4. Click OK to accept the change.

Linked trees between Level Manager and Level Display

The Link Tree Selection property allows you to link together the actions of the Level Manager and the Level Display dialog boxes. When this property is turned on, any target file(s) selected in the tree in Level Manager are also selected in Level Display and vice versa.

Level Manager and Level Display link by the Link Tree Selection property

Level Display Properties dialog with Link Tree Selection on

Level Manager Properties dialog with Link Tree Selection on

To turn on the Link Tree Selection property

1. Right-click in the empty area to the right of the controls at the top of the Level Display or Level Manager dialog box.
   The Properties pop-up menu appears.


2. Click on Properties.
   The Properties dialog box opens.


3. Turn on the Link Tree Selection check box.


4. Click OK to accept the change and close the dialog box.

Docking the Level Display

You can dock the Level Display dialog box by setting the Allow Docking option toggle on the Level Display Properties dialog box. The next time the Level Display dialog box is opened, it will be available for docking.

To dock the Level Display dialog box toggle

1. Right-click in the empty area to the right of the controls at the top of the Level Display dialog box.
   The Properties pop-up menu appears.


2. Click on Properties.
   The Level Display Properties dialog box opens.


3. Turn on the Allow Docking check box.


4. Click OK to accept the change and close the dialog box.
   Next time you open the Level Display dialog box, it will be available for docking.

Toggling Level Symbology in Level Manager

Multiple selection of target file(s) provides the ability to override symbology on levels that exist in multiple files. For example, you might have several files that have a level called Border and elements on that level appear in a different color in each file. You can change the color symbology once and the color will be changed in all the selected files.

In the example below, Level 1 is green in MainExternal.dgn and yellow in Office.dgn. In the last picture, both files selected and the color has been changed to blue. The modified Level 1 is marked with an asterisk because the color setting is different from the value in the reference source file.

To change level symbology across multiple target files

1. Select the desired targets from the tree.
   The levels from the selected targets display in the level list.


2. Right-click in the empty area to the right of the controls at the top of the Level Manager dialog box.
   The Properties pop-up menu appears.


3. Click on Properties.
   The Level Manager Properties dialog box opens.


4. Turn on the Merge Names check box.


5. Click OK to accept the change and close the Level Manager Properties dialog box.


6. Make the desired symbology changes on the desired level(s).
   The symbology changed on all selected files in the target tree.

   If Merge Names is off and multiple levels of the same name exist, you must make the symbology change on each level of that name.