Problem
You have many text elements that you would like to convert to text objects (geometry) for engraving. You can explode a text element and get curves that outline the text. The problem is, when you change a text element to a single stroke font, it automatically closes each letter/number and is unreadable. The only way you have been able to make a single stroke font work is by creating geometry using Rhino’s TextObject command. However, because you have so many text elements it would take forever to remake geometry for each of them. It is possible to write a script to automate this.
Solution
The following script demonstrates how to convert text elements to text objects (geometry). In this sample, text objects (geometry) are created with the identical properties, such as font, height, bold, and italics, as the text element.
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' ConvertTextToGeometry.rvb -- September 2008
' If this code works, it was written by Dale Fugier.
' If not, I don't know who wrote it.
' Works with Rhino 4.0.
Option Explicit
Sub ConvertTextToGeometry
' Declare local variables
Dim obj_list, obj, saved_plane, cmd
Dim font, height, plane, style, text, bold, italic
' Select annotation objects
obj_list = Rhino.GetObjects("Select text to convert to geometry", 512, True, True)
If Not IsArray(obj_list) Then Exit Sub
' For speed, turn of screen redrawing
Call Rhino.EnableRedraw(False)
' Save the current construction plane
saved_plane = Rhino.ViewCPlane()
' Process each selected object
For Each obj In obj_list
' Weed out just the text objects
If Rhino.IsText(obj) Then
' Acquire the text parameters
font = Rhino.TextObjectFont(obj)
height = Rhino.TextObjectHeight(obj)
plane = Rhino.TextObjectPlane(obj)
style = Rhino.TextObjectStyle(obj)
text = Rhino.TextObjectText(obj)
If (style And 1) Then
bold = "_Yes"
Else
bold = "_No"
End If
If (style And 2) Then
italic = "_Yes"
Else
italic = "_No"
End If
' Set the current construction plane
Call Rhino.ViewCPlane(, plane)
' Add a new text object (geometry)
cmd = "_-TextObject "
cmd = cmd & "_GroupOutput=_Yes "
cmd = cmd & "_FontName=" & font & " "
cmd = cmd & "_Italic=" & italic & " "
cmd = cmd & "_Bold=" & bold & " "
cmd = cmd & "_Height=" & CStr(height) & " "
cmd = cmd & "_Output=_Curves "
cmd = cmd & "_AllowOpenCurves=_Yes "
cmd = cmd & Chr(34) & text & Chr(34) & " "
cmd = cmd & "0"
Call Rhino.Command(cmd, 0)
' Delete the original object
Call Rhino.DeleteObject(obj)
End If
Next
' Restore the saved construction plane
Call Rhino.ViewCPlane(, saved_plane)
' Enable screen redrawing
Call Rhino.EnableRedraw(True)
End Sub
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Rhino.AddStartupScript Rhino.LastLoadedScriptFile
Rhino.AddAlias "ConvertTextToGeometry", "_NoEcho _-RunScript (ConvertTextToGeometry)"
If you want to override the font to use a single stroke font, simply modify this line:
font = Rhino.TextObjectFont(obj)
and replace it with something more like this:
font = "<single_stroke_font_name>"
