Exploding TEXT in AutoCAD

One of our favorite (now EX) Autodeskers is Heidi Hewett. She recently blogged on exploding TEXT into line segments. We have also covered this topic back in 2015, and we covered how to explode linetypes into line segments.

We have since discovered something that may be of interest. If you have not figured it out already, the TXTEXP command is simply using the WMFOUT and WMFIN commands. Since WMF does not support text*, the text object is exported as vectors. Then when it is reimported back into AutoCAD, it is created as line segments.

Starting with the 2016 version of AutoCAD, the documentation on WMFOUT says that WMF files support Truetype fonts (TTF). *Sure enough, in this version and later, if you export text that uses a TTF, with the WMFOUT command, and import it back in using WMFIN you still have TEXT. (Note: This has never and does not apply to AutoCAD SHX based fonts).

But when you use the TXTEXP command, all TEXT, including TTF, is exploded. So how is Autodesk doing it? The trick appears to be the fact that the TXTEXP command is mirroring the TEXT before using WMFOUT. Apparently the WMFOUT command is smart enough to think something is wrong with mirrored text, so it exports the text as vectors (not TTF). If you pay close attention to the TXTEXP command, you can see the text being mirrored on export and import.

Note that AutoCAD LT does not have the TXTEXP command, so if you want to explode your text using AutoCAD LT, you must use WMFOUT and WMFIN. Just be sure that if you are exporting TTF text, to mirror it first, and then mirror back the imported result. Oh, make sure the system variable MIRRTEXT = 1, otherwise the text will not actually mirror when you mirror it as shown here: