Color

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

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

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

• The Color value is white so everything is white and there can never be any discrimination between Colors.

• 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 Marine Color 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 Marine Colors 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:

In order to produce true Marine Colors 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 Marine Colors.