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Troubleshooting: Exporting to 3D DGN

Exporting 3D views to DGN is not directly supported. Modify the Revit.ini file to enable the export of 3D views to DGN files.

Symptom: After you export a 3D view of the model to an DGN file, the resulting file does not have any geometry. The V8 DGN exporter used by Revit does not support 3D views.

Solution: To successfully export a 3D view to DGN you must edit the Revit.ini file to use a previous version of the exporter:

  1. Navigate to the Revit.ini file:

    %APPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2026 Release

  2. Open Revit.ini in a text editor (such as Notepad) for editing.
  3. In the file, locate the [Export] section.

    If the [Export] section does not exist, you can add it to the end of the file, following the example in the next step.

  4. Under [Export], define the setting UseVersion2012DGN as 1 (one), as follows: 
    [Export]
UseVersion2012DGN=1

    If the setting does not exist in the [Export] section, add it. If the [Export] section contains other settings, leave them in place.

  5. Save changes to Revit.ini and exit the editor.
  6. Restart Revit.
  7. Open the model and re-export the 3D view to DGN.
By setting UseVersion2012DGN to 1, you are forcing Revit to use the previous export process to export view.
Note: The previous version export process does only supports mapping of categories to levels in the DGN file using numbers 1-64. You will need to assign a numerical value for categories in the exported DGN otherwise all geometry will be exported as Level 1.

Export Level Setup

Use the Levels tab of the Modify DGN Export Setup dialog to customize layer mapping settings for a DGN export setup.
  1. Click File tab ExportCAD Formats(DGN).
  2. In the DGN Export Setting dialog Click the Levels tab and click Level Settings.
  3. For each category set a level number between 1-64 and set a Color ID. Set values for both Projection and Cut.
    Note: Any geometry in a category not set, or set with a value other than an integer between 1-64, will be assigned to Level 1 in the exported DGN
  4. (Optional) If you want to use this export setup in another file, click Save As to save the setup as a TXT file that can be loaded and used as the export setup for other files.
  5. Click OK to apply the setup.
  6. Continue to Export to DGN.
Parent topic: Troubleshooting: Document and Present the Design

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