AutoCAD Tip – Convert Spline to Polyline

If you have ever drawn a Spline and wanted to convert it to a polyline well you can and here is how.

I believe this was a new feature in AutoCAD 2010.

There are few ways to do this so you choose which one you wish to use.

SPLINEDIT

By typing SPLINEDIT into command line this allows you to edit the spline, select convert to Polyline from Dynamic Input list or type P into command line and hit enter, you will now be asked to Specify a precision : Just press enter. (You can specify a precision value between 0 and 99, Note: Too high a value could impact performance.)

PEDIT

If you type PEDIT (Edit Polyline command) into the command line, it will ask you to select polyline or [Multiple] just select the spline, it will promote you the object selected is not a polyline; Do you want to turn it into one? Type Y and press enter;

You will now be asked to Specify a precision : Just press enter. (You can specify a precision value between 0 and 99, Note: Too high a value could impact performance.)

Below is an example of a Spline (left hand side) converted to a polyline and a Spline (right hand side) not converted.

Note: A few things to remember when converting a Spline to Polyline.

• When prompted for a precision value between 0 and 90 note the default is 10 and the higher value the more accurate.
• The larger the precision value, the more accurately the polyline is going to match the path of the spline. It will also slow your drawing down.

The PLINECONVERTMODE system variable can also be used to control the accuracy of a spline to polyline conversion. When it is set to 0, it converts splines to polylines composed of linear segments. When it is set to 1, it converts splines to polylines composed of arc segments.

Please note this has been done in AutoCAD 2012 and may not work in older versions of AutoCAD. I believe these tools were available from AutoCAD 2010.