By default, opening a V7 format DGN (MicroStation/J) in the current version of MicroStation will prompt you either to upgrade the file to the V8 DGN format, or to open the file as read-only. If needed, you can configure MicroStation to run in V7 workmode, which lets you open V7 DGNs for write access in your newer version of MicroStation, and also disables functionality that is not backward-compatible.

If you want integrated MicroStation to launch in V7 workmode when opening certain V7 DGN documents from ProjectWise Explorer, do the following:

1. In ProjectWise Administrator:
   1. Leave the default MicroStation application as is (assuming that it is already set as the default application for opening DGNs).
   2. Create a new application just for opening V7 DGN documents called MicroStationV7DGN (the name can be whatever you want) and set the following:
      • Set the program executable to your current version of MicroStation.
      • Set additional command line arguments to -wsMS_OPENV7=3
      • Set the icon to the Bentley "B" logo
2. In ProjectWise Explorer:
   1. Select the V7 DGNs that you want to be opened in MicroStation V7 workmode.
   2. Select Document > Modify.
   3. Set the Application to MicroStationV7DGN (or whatever you have named the application in ProjectWise Administrator).

With this configuration, all DGNs you import into ProjectWise (including any V7 DGNs) will continue to be automatically associated to the default MicroStation application as usual. Only the V7 DGNs that you manually associate to MicroStationV7DGN will open in V7 workmode.