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!
Solved! Go to Solution.
Solved by pendean. Go to Solution.
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)
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.
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.
The full procedure if you are feeling brave and want really good results, but #1 and #18 are a must if not:
You now have the text in a outline and can solid hatch it for a fill.
Enter "Expresstools" to load it, or see if there's a drop-down menu with that name.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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