converting curved polygons & polylines to arcs

[brian-rwc]

I wish curved polygons and polylines could be converted to a combination of arcs matching the same curvature instead of those little line fragments. I usually end up re-tracing an arc over those polygons (or grouping the fragments together) but that is a hassle.

I also wish the selection handles for polylines would always remain along the object (as in the editing mode) instead of at the extreme corners as with groups. Countless times I have moved polylines accidentally because their invisible boundaries get caught when trying to select other objects.

Many of our consultants on ACAD use polylines but I remember in ACAD they could always be converted back to basic lines and arcs when needed. I never remember having to complete de-compose curved objects to line fragments in ACAD.

[P Retondo]

Convert polylines to arcs and lines, etc., using the "Decompose" command. Polygons, by contrast, are by definition composed only of line segments and will only yield line segments, unless you redraft in the manner you describe. If you convert a polyline to a polygon, you've lost all the curvature information.

I think your suggestion about making the selection handles for objects fit the "smallest rectangle," which in many cases would be rotated, is a very interesting one.

[brian-rwc]

thanks. I tried 'decompose' on a polyline and it did split it up into shorter polyline segements which is atleast more manageable than one big massive polyline. The problem remains that we have to deal mostly with polygons (not polylines) in files we translate from .dwg. Perhaps the polygons in those .dwg files never had arcs to begin with. I guess that's another reason we should install an ACAD viewer to help compare the accuracy of translation.

[Guest]

If the lines had curves, they were probably bsplines, which have a hard time being broken down.

You'd have to check the object type in AutoCAD to be sure.

Once you have that info, there may be a better approach to breaking the lines down.

Is there a reason you need the polys broken down into lines and arcs?

Maybe there's a better approach, or drafting method in VW to achieve the end result.