Quick Explode is an interactive, 'intelligent' version of the Explode tool, which explodes entities into their constituent components, without displaying any forms.
If you have entities selected when you start the tool, each of those entities may be affected. On the other hand, if you have nothing selected, only the picked entity will be affected.
The explode operation that takes place depends on the entity that you have picked, or the entities that were selected. The operations occur in the following order:
- symbols are exploded to blocks
- blocks are exploded to entities (but this is not done recursively, so the resultant entities might include other blocks)
- dimensions are exploded to lines, arcs and text
- special text (for example generated by a database field or a script) is exploded to normal text
- text is exploded to lines and arcs
- combination palettes and zipper/wave/zig-zag palettes are exploded into lines and arcs
- bridged entities are exploded into individual line/arc/Bezier sections
- Bezier entities are exploded into lines and arcs
- arcs are exploded into smaller arcs or lines
Each time you perform an explode action (by picking an entity or pressing the All Selected button), the operation performed is the first item in this list which is appropriate for the picked/selected entities. You can continue exploding the same entities into lower-level components (by continued picking or continued use of the All Selected button).
The results of each action is displayed on the Edit Bar, on the Status Bar and in the Output Toolbox - for example "Explode Dimension: 2 to 23" means that two dimension entities have been exploded, resulting in 23 new entities (and there might have been other selected entities that were not affected).
The Edit Bar options are as follows:
Explode arcs - explode arc entities to smaller arcs or to lines, depending on these sub-options:
- Arcs to quad segments - explode each arc at the quadrant points, into segments with sweep angle of 90 degrees or less; if this option is not ticked then the arcs are exploded into lines.
- Maximum lines from arc - you can specify a limit on the number of lines produced from each arc (or use zero to indicate no limit).
- Arc tolerance - the maximum distance between the original arc and any line generated from it.
Special text - explode special text to normal text.
Palette composition - explode combination palettes and zipper/wave/zig-zag palettes to lines and arcs.
Bridges - explode bridged entities into:
- gaps - each segment becomes an entity, with gaps between them.
- 1-2-1 format - any entities which do not conform to a 1-2-1 bridge pattern are exploded into smaller entities which do conform.
Selection - specify whether the generated entities are selected (Select New) or not (Select None).
All Selected - if you have some entities selected, you can use this button instead of picking an entity.
The Edit Bar settings can define both which entities are affected and which new entities might be created from them.
The bridging settings are only available if you have Diemaking features enabled - see Environment Options.
NOTE: When you pick an entity in order to explode it, if that entity is already selected then all selected entities are processed. But if you pick an entity that was not selected, any other entities will be deselected and only the picked entity is processed.