dbWindow 3.0 removes all the stumbling blocks to using a database with MicroStation

As you can see, there are several options on the Graphics pull-down menu. You need to download dbWindow 3.0 to try all the powerful features.
The Refeature command will take one or more elements from one or more files and modify the level and various symbology (color, style , weight, ...) to match the respective column values in the feature database table.

The Settings dialog has a Refeature tab where you can specify the feature table name and its relative column names.
The Automatically refeature option instructs dbWindow to automatically refeature elements upon attaching a feature linkage.