Re-building exploded text

[casiopian]

I have a drawing with a large volume of text that has all been exploded. I would like to edit the text, but I cannot because all the text is merely lines and arcs and polylines. Is there any way besides writing overtop of it with new text to get the text back into actual text?

[ReMark]

What you are asking for cannot be done in AutoCAD as there is no Recombine Text command.

 

There is a workaround of sorts discussed in this thread.

 

http://discussion.autodesk.com/forums/message.jspa?messageID=6130547

 

And no, there isn't a lisp routine that will do it either.

 

It's going to take some grunt work and at least one other piece of software.

 

Sorry.

[casiopian]

I appreciate the help, thank you

[Dana W]

I have a drawing with a large volume of text that has all been exploded. I would like to edit the text, but I cannot because all the text is merely lines and arcs and polylines. Is there any way besides writing overtop of it with new text to get the text back into actual text?

 

If it is any comfort, Autodesk software at least as new as AutoCAD 2009 will NOT allow text to be exploded to that level. The lowest it will go is single line text from multi-line.

 

You think that is bad. I downloaded what I thought was to be a "block" of an isometric residential wall section from a website that shall remain completely and utterly nameless. The entire thing was exploded to the lowest level, including each and every fiber in an isometric view of some kind of CARPET HATCH for goodness sakes. Every fiber separate? Come on.

[dbroada]

it may not have been exploded. It may have started as a PDF and converted back to dwg - same result though, lots of work.

[Cad64]

If it is any comfort, Autodesk software at least as new as AutoCAD 2009 will NOT allow text to be exploded to that level.

 

Yes it can. Express Tools TXTEXP command will explode text down to simple lines.

[ReMark]

Maybe we can convince Lee or Alan to write a Recombine Text lisp routine. LOL

[cadvision]

Only way you are going to do this is re-type. I'd make a new layer and start andding new text, then you can turn off or delete your "exploded" txt. There is nothing really for OCR software to recognise. If this was a scan you might have a chance with the ABBYY OCR engine in the likes of Cosft's raster editor WisImage Pro. Since it is now lines & arcs I don't this this will work.

[alanjt]

Clunky and not always predictable...

 

 

 

I used TIFOUT to create the image.

[cadvision]

that might speed this up. Rasterise the drawing and Use OCR, Still need to check, but if you are not a quick typer...

[alanjt]

Maybe we can convince Lee or Alan to write a Recombine Text lisp routine. LOL

LoL

I'll leave that one to the real gurus.

 

that might speed this up. Rasterise the drawing and Use OCR, Still need to check, but if you are not a quick typer...

It will probably make more work for you in the end, but it could be a nice helper.

[Dana W]

Yes it can. Express Tools TXTEXP command will explode text down to simple lines.

 

Oh, OK. I was thinking in LT terms. No express tools. Why would that be useful? I suppose there is a reason.

[dbroada]

Why would that be useful? I suppose there is a reason.

it can be used to create company logos. Explode the text so that it is just a series if arcs & lines and you can apply whatever hatch you like. Alternatively you might want to modify the M in the middle ever so slightly.

[Cad64]

Why would that be useful? I suppose there is a reason.

 

It can be helpful if you need to create 3D text. You can explode the text and then Extrude it to create raised letters or subtract it from a solid to create an engraved look.

[Dana W]

Thanks guys, of course. That's what I get for spending so much time working with LT.

[Gert]

The best that one can do at this point in time, is to print the text to pdf again and use a free online converter to convert it to word, copy paste it back to Acad. Laborious, but works for now, and surely faster than retyping all!

[SLW210]

This is an old thread..so need for all of that information.

 

Starting with IIRC AutoCAD 2017 you might be able to create text from it with PDFSHXTEXT.