I need to export a lot of blocks as separate IGES files to my CAM program, and it will not save text annotations in IGES files because there is no definition for it in the IGES format, but I find that IGES is the most compatible in every other way, my geometry, layer names, colors, and all other attributes all come in just fine. My goal with the text is to machine it with the CAM program, so the Text was all done with the SLF-RHN Architect font… it’s a single line font, and I found that I can convert it to curves with the Explode command, and the curves I end up with are excellent for engraving.
The method I use is to just highlight my final block, then do Export Selected and save just the selection to an IGES file. What I would like to do, is select the whole block, then convert the text to curves, perform the export, then undo the convert to curves, so that it’s still editable text in my main drawing.
The problem is that the text not on the main block that I select, it’s nested several times… so it’s in a block in a block in a block. I can’t do a blockedit once I’m already editing a block, and it’s tedious to extract all the nested blocks to be able to do a blockedit on the ones that have text so I can explode the text. I would like to find a solution that is easy to undo and that does not require that I disrupt the structure of the main block.
I am creating it like this on purpose and not using the text object because I want to be able to change it by just typing the new text in the main model. It’s part of a whole procedure that works well for me… except for converting the text to curves from inside nested blocks without exploding all the blocks, or manually extracting the nested portions.
I really just want to hit one button and all the text in a selected block is converted to curves no matter how deeply nested it is, do the export, then undo the convert to curves. Any suggestions on how this could be done?