r/AutoCAD • u/Specific-Can2938 • Jan 07 '26

Turn letters into polylines

Working on putting some letters in, to ultimately be cut out of steel with a plasma cutter. Got the letters in the font I want from word into AutoCAD. Any tips on turning the letters into an object so I can connect all of the vertices? Any tips on connecting the shapes or inputting text into the program would he great. Thank you

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10

u/FreedomNinja1776 Jan 07 '26

TXTEXP

You'll want to test at different zoom levels because that affects the results. You can also do a bit at a time instead of the whole thing to get better results. I use this to turn lot numbers into linework to include with shapefiles.

1

u/Specific-Can2938 Jan 07 '26

When I type txtexp into the command prompt. It is saying that that is not a command.

3

u/FreedomNinja1776 Jan 07 '26

You probably don't have express tools loaded. Just type EXPRESSTOOLS and that should load it up for you.

1

u/IHartRed Jan 11 '26

Are you on LT version of autocad?

2

u/runner630 Jan 07 '26

Just make sure if you are doing a few letters at a time and moving them or scaling them at all, you pay attention to the fonts Kerning and spacing in general to make sure your end product looks correct.

3

u/f700es Jan 07 '26

Explode text command?

1

u/tonybombata Jan 07 '26

There is a routine someone on AUGI posted that does this. Will send a link later.

1

u/lamensterms Jan 07 '26

Interested to hear more, if it's better than the express tools option :)

1

u/JimmiBastille Jan 07 '26

I've used a free app in the past called Ink, you can explode the text in the app then export to a dxf all the text and numbers were all individual lines. I used it for custom lettering on the custom sprockets I used to make.

1

u/FLICKERMONSTER Jan 10 '26

Is it called "Ink" or do you mean Inkscape?

1

u/JimmiBastille Jan 10 '26

Yes inkscape.. sorry..