Using Level Symbology to plot thinner lines.

A question we recently received was: "Is there a way to plot the lines in some reference files thinner, without changing the drawing and keep the other reference files the same?"
The easy way to handle this is to use Level Symbology. (The following directions are for MicroStation/J.)

1) From the "Reference" dialog box, select the reference file you want to plot.

2) Go to Settings | Level Symbology. This will open the "Ref Level Symbology" dialog box for that reference file.

3) Select the levels you want to make "thinner", then click on the Weight check box, under the "Settings" area.

4) Modify the Weight and click <OK>.

5) In the View Attributes for your active view, turn on "Level Symbology".

Enable the "Level Symbology" view attribute to see the level symbology you just set.
That's it! This does not affect the actual element symbology, only how the element displays in that view. You can turn off the level symbology when you are done plotting.

If you use this procedure often, it would be good practice to set up this up in an unused view. This gives you a "plotting view" that you can modify however you want, without modifying the actual drawing.

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