Converting text to outline/polyline

[Anonymous]

How can I change text from being solid fill to just outline?  Or convert it from text to polyline?  I need to make cut templates.  I found suggestions online for using Paste Special from Word, TXTEXP, and WMFOUT/WMFIN but none of those have worked for me.

Thanks in advance!

[tmccar]

If you have Express Tools, you can "Explode Text" into entities.

[Anonymous]

I don't believe I have Express Tools.  How would I check?

[rkmcswain]

  I found suggestions online for using Paste Special from Word, TXTEXP, and WMFOUT/WMFIN but none of those have worked for me.

First off, TXTEXP is the Express Tools "explode text", so what doesn't work about this for you? (EDIT: I just realized this was the "LT" forum, so you will not have this command.

Secondly, TXTEXP uses WMFOUT/WMFIN to do its "exploding", so what didn't work about WMFOUT/WMFIN? I use this all the time and it works great.

(I'm not 100% sure that LT includes WMFOUT/WMFIN)

[Anonymous]

AutoCAD didn't recognize the TXTEXP command at all.  I suppose that is due to the fact it's LT...  The WMFOUT/WMFIN simply pasted the text back in but it was still "filled" not in outline/polyline.  Maybe I did something wrong?  This is my first time using this command.

[rkmcswain]

After the "text" is imported using WMFIN, it's all polylines or other simple geometry. You should be able to erase all of it except for the outlines.

In the future, consider switching to a font that is not filled prior to WMFOUT/WMFIN.

[tmccar]

Enter "Expresstools" to load it, or see if there's a drop-down menu with that name.

[Anonymous]

When I import the text back using WMFIN it is still solid.  It is no longer edit-able text, but it is one solid piece.  It does not break into polylines etc.

I have no choice in the font, I am using the specific font requested by a client.

[Anonymous]

I got"Unknown command "EXPRESSTOOLS". Press F1 for help."

[pendean · Accepted solution]

The full procedure if you are feeling brave and want really good results, but #1 and #18 are a must if not:

1. Setup the text style to use an width other than exactly 1. It can be
   .9999 or 1.000001 or etc.
2. Create the text or use property painter to 'paint' the new info to
   existing text
3. Somewhere in the drawing, create a line that will be used for
   reference later
4. At the command prompt, type WMFOUT
5. Select the text and the reference line (real easy if you have the text
   on a separate layer)
6. Erase (or freeze) the 'real' text but keep the reference line
7. At the command prompt, type WMFIN & select the wmf file you created
8. Notice the wmf doesn't come in at the same scale - the reason for the
   reference line
9. After selecting the base point, use the default scale & rotation
10. Now, move the block made by importing the WMF so one endpoint of the
    wmf's ref line matches up with the corresponding endpoint of the original
    ref line
11. At the command prompt, type SCALE and select the wmf block
12. For the base point, select the endpoint you used to match up ref lines
    with - the common endpoint
13. At the command prompt, type R for reference
14. Pick the 'common' endpoint
15. Pick the other endpoint of the wmf's ref line
16. Lastly pick the other endpoint of the original ref line
17. Now you can explode the block and the text should be lines
18. If you're using True Type fonts, you'll get lots of little lines. To clean
    it up easily do this:
19. After the explode, do a Change and select objects = previous
20. Put the objects on a layer by themselves for easy removal
21. Draw a rectangle around the text
22. Use the Boundary command and pick a point between the rectangle and the
    text
23. Freeze or lock every layer but the layer the text is on & erase it
24. Change the boundary you created to that layer for easy removal later
25. Use the boundary command again and pick "inside" the outline of the
    text
26. Freeze or lock every layer but the layer the first boundary is on &
    erase it

You now have the text in a outline and can solid hatch it for a fill.

[Anonymous]

THANK YOU! This worked. I appreciate the help everyone!

[rkmcswain]

tmccar wrote:

Enter "Expresstools" to load it, or see if there's a drop-down menu with that name.

ADRae wrote:

I got"Unknown command "EXPRESSTOOLS". Press F1 for help."

As noted above, this is AutoCAD LT. AutoCAD LT does not and can not include Express Tools, and therefore TXTEXP will not and can not work in LT.

[Imui]

Hello

There is also the "align" ommand wich also can scale objects

I find it handy..er

[steven-g]

pendean

nice writeup, heres a macro I use

^C^C^Cucs;z;1;select;\;wmfout;test.wmf;y;ucs;w;erase;p;;wmfin;test;$M=$(-,$(index,0,$(getvar,viewctr)),$(*,$(/,$(getvar,viewsize),2),$(/,$(index,0,$(getvar,screensize)),$(index,1,$(getvar,screensize))))),$(+,$(index,1,$(getvar,viewctr)),$(/,$(getvar,viewsize),2));2;;;explode;l;

 You still need to tidy up everything afterwards, but it deals with most of your points up to point 17. It does delete the original text but that behaviour can be altered in the macro.

[pendean]

I have a version of that macro too: thanks for sharing.

[Anonymous]

Export the text as a metafile then import the metafile back into cad and explode it. 

Worked for me.

[rkmcswain]

adrian_hall06 wrote:

Export the text as a metafile then import the metafile back into cad and explode it. 

Worked for me.

See post 16 in this thread.

Are you using LT for Mac?

[Anonymous]

Hi

I've looked at this hoping to be abel to get my text layers into Sketchup to no avail.

I'm on AutoCAD Lt for Mac and there is no WMFOUT command.

A simple work around if you have the software is to WBLOCK the text layer (include a reference item/line for scaling later). Open the dwg in Adobe Illustrator which handles dwgs pretty well in my experience. 

Select all of the text and use the Create Outlines, under the Type menu or Shift-Command-O

If need be you can then change the fill of the text which is now all shape objects, not a font.

Having done all of this I went to export again as a dwg and found this dialogue give options for outputting the dwg which include 'text as outlines' so if you don't want to bother with any of the formatting of the fills/stroke weights etc then you could just open and export the text layer.

The downside I found is the shear number of objects (I was importing a top survey with thousands of spot heights) creates a slow CAD file.

[Anonymous]

Amazing! Worked like a charm!

[Anonymous]

Could you explain how to get lines AND arcs out of the exploded block? After following these steps, I only get lines and makes the font I'm using pretty ugly.