Note: we are primarily using FME Form version 2023.2.4.0 (build 23785), but have also tested this on 2024.0.1.0 (Build 24202) with similar results.

We have received DGN files that are referencing models that are both internal and external to DGNs themselves. These external DGN files are located in the same directory folder as the file being read. We are interested in having the reader (Bentley MicroStation Design (V8)) read not just the primary DGN, but also the referenced models.

In the parameters for the reader, we check the box for “Read Elements from Reference Files” and set the value for “Max Depth of Reference Files to Read” to something arbitrarily large like 20.

Because we are interested in reading data from different files, the “Single Merged Feature Type” option is selected.

When the reader is run, we see data from the primary DGN, but nothing from any other DGN that it it is referencing. This is from the FME graphical preview from one of the models in the primary DGN:

When this same DGN is viewed in Bentley View, the data shown above corresponds to only the data in this file:
 

However, the anticipated result is something more like this:

We can read the individual DGNs, but reading specified files helps to categorize and filter the data based on the relationships that are implied by the references. Based on documentation here and here, it seems like we have done everything necessary to read those other files, but they don’t seem to be reading.

Thank you!