Things You'll Need

Instructions

1

Contact the person or business who supplied you with the .dgn file. It is always easiest to first attempt to use a file type’s native program to save down a format that is readable on your program. In this case, .dgn and .dwg belong to Microstation and AutoCAD respectively. They are competing programs, but since about 2004, they can communicate with one another.
2

Tell the creator of the .dgn to open the file in Microstation and choose “Save As.” In the dialog, select “AutoCAD Drawing Files (*.dwg)” and click “Options.”
3

Set the parameters for the “save as” in the options dialog. There are categories of properties that can be changed, each with a + next to it to expand for more detail. According to Microstation, an inherent difference in the way the two programs view and render files makes this step necessary, though finding just the right combination of settings for a particular file can be a little bit of a shot in the dark. The creator of the .dgn file will need to experiment with the settings then check in with you to see if the drawing is rendered properly when you open it in AutoCAD. If not, try altering items until you find the magic combination for that particular file.
4

If you have multiple vendors who send .dgn files, or there is some other reason that makes it impractical for the senders to convert the files on their end, invest in a good file converter.
5

Download CADE Pro (you’ll need the Pro version to handle .dgn). CADE Pro can batch convert if you have multiple .dgn files or do one at a time. The user interface is straightforward, and although it is expensive ($299 license as of 2009), it handles multiple file formats, and it will likely pay for itself in saved man hours in pretty short order.