Convert to Polyline Command

[Kevin McAllister]

Could we please have a convert to polyline command please? Right now there is no easy way to convert something like a circle to an efficient, four point polyline. Even my workaround gives me a polyline with two corner points instead of four smooth points. There are lots of instances where I should be able to leverage polylines more easily.

 

Kevin

 

Edit: Convert to Polyline should also work on NURBS curves and NURBS surfaces.

 

Edited August 29, 2017 by Kevin McAllister

[Benson Shaw]

Really needed for editable conversions. At least produce arc segments where they fit.  Bez and splines would be nice, too.

 

Confusing things for conversions:

Conversion tolerance - a million segments is always pretty close visually, but a few tangent arcs might be close enough. And they need to be composed.

Interpretation of corner points in midst of curves -  eg the Poly Smoothing command converts all vertices to same type. Convert to Polyline should preserve relevant geometry.

 

Would some sliders and onscreen preview help with any of this?

 

Or a slightly different idea - A command to trace a selection with a polyline, mimicking the trace "by hand" process we all employ from time to time - click,click,click, edit/move, edit/move . . .

 

Anyway, great wish, Kevin

 

-B

[Andy Broomell]

I've probably wasted a few days of my life cleaning up results from Convert to Lines. Better commands would be most welcome.

[Kevin McAllister]

I use polylines all the time. I avoid polygons for a variety of reasons (here's an example why in another thread - Example). VW is a drafting program first and foremost so accuracy is very important. Polylines are accurate..... faceted polygon shapes are not.

KM

[Kevin McAllister]

Bumping this wish again.

 

Today's example, needing slices of a pie with boundary edges. Can't do it with arcs because there's no way to activate the hidden edges. Can't do it with convert to polygons.... yuck, too many points. Ended up doing it by slicing a circle. There should be a Convert to Polyline command (and apparently there is in some localized European versions).

 

Kevin