Managing DWG Settings

The settings for opening and saving DWG files are stored in a DWG settings file (*.dws). This file can be created using the DWG Open Options and Save As DWG/DXF Options dialogs.

The DWG settings file resides in the local directory pointed to by the configuration variable MS_DWGDATA.

By default, MS_DWGDATA is set to the %LOCALAPPDATA%\Bentley\<product_name>\<product_version>\prefs\dwgdata\ directory. A system administrator can override the defaults for these settings by setting the configuration variable MS_DWGSYSTEMDATA to point to the directory containing the standard settings file.

The display and plotting color tables (DwgDisplayColor.tbl and DwgPlotColors.tbl) can also be controlled by placing them in the MS_DWGSYSTEMDATA directory.

The Do Not Display Again setting for the DWG/DXF Units Alert is stored in the DWG settings file, along with the other settings.

Note: The DWG settings file created from MicroStation PowerDraft CONNECT Edition is not backward compatible with earlier versions of MicroStation PowerDraft. The .dws file you saved from MicroStation PowerDraft CONNECT Edition will not open in older releases of MicroStation PowerDraft. However, the forward compatibility is retained. An older version of .dws file can be opened and used in MicroStation PowerDraft CONNECT Edition.