The information is based on the ISFF.TXT document, supposition, and review of display effects in various viewers. It is incomplete, and at times likely incorrect. I would appreciate feedback at warmerdam@pobox.com.
NOTE: There can be more than one color table in a DGN file, and currently on the first is utilized. In theory the screen or view value from the colormap should be used to establish which is to be used but this doesn't seem to be an issue in any sample data I have encountered.
The DGNPF_ORIENTATION flag is set an element is to be oriented relative to the screen, instead of relative to the design plane. It isn't clear what all properties this affects, perhaps the orientation of text in a viewer that can rotate the view of the file as a whole. No examples of this being used have been found.
If used with a line element, the DBNPF_HOLE flag indicates that the line should be treated as infinite, while it is otherwise just a segment between the two provided points. If used with a closed element (shape, complex shape, ellipse, ...) it indicates that shape is a hole (unfilled) while by default such elements are filled.
If the DGNPF_HOLE flag is set the shape is really a hole within another element and should be "cleared". The exact semantics are unclear. The first and last vertices of a shape are always the same.
A curve with n points defines n-1 line segments; interpolation occurs over the middle n-5 segments. Each segment has its own parametric cubic interpolation polynomial for the x and y (and z in 3D) dimensions. The parameter for each of these polynomials is the length along the line segment. Thus, for a segment k, the interpolated points P are expressed as a function of the distance d along the segment as follows:
Pk(d) = {Fk,x(d), Fk,y(d), Fk,z(d)} with 0 <= d <= Dk
Fk,x, Fk,y, and Fk,z are cubic polynomials and Dk is the length of segment k.
In addition, the polynomial coefficients are functions of the segment
length and the endpoint derivatives of Fk,x, Fk,y, and Fk,z. The subscript k
is merely a reminder that these functions depend on the segment.The cubic polynomials are defined as follows:
Fk,x = axd3 + bxd2 + cxd + Xk
cx = tk
bx = [3(Xk+1-Xk)/Dk - 2tk,x - tk+1,x] / Dk
ax = [tk,x + tk+1,x - 2(xk+1-xk)/Dk] / Dk2
The m variable is analogous to the slope of the segment.
If (|mk+1,x-mk,x| + |mk-1,x-mk-2,x|) <> 0, then:
tk,x = (mk-1,x|mk+1,x-mk,x| + mk,x|mk-1,x-mk-2,x|)/(|mk+1,x-mk,x| +
|mk-1,x-mk-2,x|)
else:
tk,x = (mk+1,x+mk,x) / 2
mk,x = (Xk+1 - Xk) / Dk
Fk,y(d) and Fk,z(d) are defined analogously.
The DGNElemArc (also used for ellipses) looks like this:
typedef struct {
DGNElemCore core;
DGNPoint origin;
double primary_axis;
double secondary_axis;
double rotation;
long quat[4];
double startang;
double sweepang;
} DGNElemArc;
The origin is the center of rotation for the ellipse or arc.The primary_axis and secondary_axis define the distance from the origin to the ellipse edge on the primary (horizontal) and secondary (vertical) axis.
The rotation indicates the counterclockwise (or clockwise if negative) rotation in degrees of the defined ellipse around the origin.
The startang indicates the start angle (degrees, counterclockwise) of the arc. For ellipses this is always 0.
The sweepang indicates the angle through which the arc sweeps (counterclockwise in degrees, clockwise if negative). For ellipses this is always 360.
The DGNStrokeArc() function can be used to approximate arcs and ellipses as a polyline.
typedef struct {
DGNElemCore core;
int font_id;
int justification;
long length_mult;
long height_mult;
double rotation;
DGNPoint origin;
char string[1];
} DGNElemText;
The font_id is a value from 0-255 for the to use. It is unclear to me at
this time how this can be related to a non-microstation specific font. The justification is generally ignored, since the provided origin is always at the bottom left of the text to be placed. The justification relates to how the user originally placed the text.
The rotation indicates the rotation in degrees counterclockwise of the text (zero is horizontal, left to right).
The origin is position where the bottom left corner of the text is placed.
The height_mult field gives the height of the text in master coordinates. This appears to be the height of a line, measuring distance from the baseline of one line to the next, and is usually a bit more than the height of the text itself.
If length_mult is different than height_mult, it means the aspect ratio of the text has been adjusted from the default.