Converting text to outline/polyline

Converting text to outline/polyline

Anonymous
Not applicable
156,386 Views
27 Replies
Message 1 of 28

Converting text to outline/polyline

Anonymous
Not applicable

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!

0 Likes
Accepted solutions (1)
156,387 Views
27 Replies
Replies (27)
Message 2 of 28

tmccar
Advisor
Advisor

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

Message 3 of 28

Anonymous
Not applicable

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

0 Likes
Message 4 of 28

rkmcswain
Mentor
Mentor

  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)

 

R.K. McSwain     | CADpanacea | on twitter
Message 5 of 28

Anonymous
Not applicable

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.

0 Likes
Message 6 of 28

rkmcswain
Mentor
Mentor
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.

R.K. McSwain     | CADpanacea | on twitter
Message 7 of 28

tmccar
Advisor
Advisor

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

0 Likes
Message 8 of 28

Anonymous
Not applicable

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.

0 Likes
Message 9 of 28

Anonymous
Not applicable
I got"Unknown command "EXPRESSTOOLS". Press F1 for help."
0 Likes
Message 10 of 28

pendean
Community Legend
Community Legend
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.

Message 11 of 28

Anonymous
Not applicable
THANK YOU! This worked. I appreciate the help everyone!
0 Likes
Message 12 of 28

rkmcswain
Mentor
Mentor
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.

 

R.K. McSwain     | CADpanacea | on twitter
0 Likes
Message 13 of 28

Imui
Advocate
Advocate

Hello

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

I find it handy..er

0 Likes
Message 14 of 28

steven-g
Mentor
Mentor

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.

Message 15 of 28

pendean
Community Legend
Community Legend
I have a version of that macro too: thanks for sharing.
0 Likes
Message 16 of 28

Anonymous
Not applicable

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

 

 

Worked for me.

0 Likes
Message 17 of 28

rkmcswain
Mentor
Mentor
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?

R.K. McSwain     | CADpanacea | on twitter
0 Likes
Message 18 of 28

Anonymous
Not applicable

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.

0 Likes
Message 19 of 28

Anonymous
Not applicable

Amazing! Worked like a charm!

0 Likes
Message 20 of 28

Anonymous
Not applicable

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. 

0 Likes