Creating 3d Objects/letters

[Anonymous]

I am trying to create initials and can not seem to make them 3d. I extrude the letters but i can't seem to add a surface in between the letter. I am currently trying to make a 3d "R" and when I extrude it looks like just the outline of the letter. it doesn't seem like it would be a solid. 

[Kent1Cooper]

Use PRESSPULL rather than EXTRUDE.  [Read about it in Help.]  If you join the pieces into closed Polylines, you can EXTRUDE them into 3D Solids, but you would then need to SUBTRACT the Solid of the hole from the Solid of the outer perimeter.

[S.Faris]

Convert your exploded text lines into a closed poly line and then Extrude both e polylines. Now Subtract the Smaller Solid from the bigger one. 

The reason you are making surfaces is because it is 2d lines. To create a solid you need POLYLINE.

[Kent1Cooper]

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@S.Faris wrote:

.... The reason you are making surfaces is because it is 2d lines. To create a solid you need POLYLINE.

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Being a Polyline is neither necessary nor quite sufficient in and of itself -- it also needs to be closed  to get a Solid result.  [That means closed by AutoCAD's definition, not simply drawn around to end where it began.]  And if it's a 3DPolyline, it needs to be planar.  But any  closed path-variety shape will work -- Circle, full Ellipse, closed Spline, or Region in addition to Polyline.  One might well use several of those to make different letter forms.

[S.Faris]

"Convert your exploded text lines into a closed poly line and then Extrude both e polylines. Now Subtract the Smaller Solid from the bigger one."

I had mentioned it in there.

[Michiel.Valcke]

Besides what everyone has already said. You need to _EXTRUDE or _PRESSPULL from a closed polyline if you want to create a 3D SOLID instead of a SURFACE. You can find/toggle the closed property of a polyline in the _PROPERTIES tab.

If you have a text object you wish to convert to a polyline (to reuse a certain font without having to trace it). You can use the _TXTEXP (text-explode) command.

You will need to clean up the actual text a bit using _PEDIT or _BO. But once you have done that it should be ready to extrude to a 3D SOLID.

[Kent1Cooper]

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@Michiel.Valcke wrote:

.... You need to _EXTRUDE or _PRESSPULL from a closed polyline if you want to create a 3D SOLID instead of a SURFACE. ....

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True for EXTRUDE, not  for PRESSPULL.  In their sample drawing, I ERASEd the Surfaces, then PRESSPULLed a 3DSolid just by picking in the area inside the still-separate  Lines and Arcs.