lines to closed polylines

[Daryl Wood]

How can I take a shape that is made up of many individual lines and turn it into a single polyline object without individually clicking on each line segment and connecting it to the next line segment?

In other words, is it possible to group select all the lines and have them connect to their common points resulting in the single polyline object?

Thanks

[Bob Holtzmann]

The Command "Compose" under the Modify Menu will make a polygon out of individual lines. Another trick is to select the lines and "Combine Into Surface", but that creates a polygon and leaves the original lines. "Combine Into Surface" also works with overlapping lines with extended endpoints.

One of the problems I've had with connecting lines is the ends of the segments might have gaps for "Compose" not to work, so there can be lots of time spent stretching ends of lines. For this, a great time saver is the "ChainMaker" tool from VectorBits. This tool closes the gaps in lines, and its tolerance setting can be adjusted.

[Daryl Wood]

Thanks Bob,