EXPLODE

EXPLODE takes an object that is made of several parts and turns it into those parts. A polyline becomes separate lines and arcs, a block becomes the objects inside it, and a dimension becomes lines and text you can edit one by one.

How it works

Type X and press Enter. Select the objects to explode, then press Enter. If you select the objects first and then type X, Musa CAD explodes them straight away.

Command line

Command: X
Select objects: (pick the polyline)
Select objects: Enter
Exploded 1 object into 4.

The message tells you how many objects were exploded and how many parts they became. The parts are left selected, so you can move or change them at once.

What each object becomes

Object	Becomes
Polyline	One line or arc for each segment. Any width is lost.
Block reference	The objects inside the block, placed where the block was. Only one level: a block inside the block stays a block reference. Attributes turn back into attribute definitions, which show the tag; the values are dropped.
Dimension	Lines, the arrowheads as filled solid hatches, and text.
Leader and multileader	Lines, the arrowhead, and the text. A multileader’s text becomes multiline text.
Hatch	A pattern becomes its lines. A solid fill becomes its boundary, as closed polylines. A wipeout becomes the lines of its frame.
Multiline text	One single-line text for each line.
Table	Lines for the grid and text for the cells.
Multiline	Lines and arcs.

Lines, circles, arcs, ellipses, splines, points, single-line text and other simple objects are already as simple as they get, so EXPLODE leaves them alone.

Good to know

• If the selection also holds simple objects, the message counts them at the end, for example Exploded 1 object into 4. 2 could not be exploded.
• If everything selected is already simple, Musa CAD says Nothing to explode: the selection holds only simple objects.
• Exploding a polyline with width warns you: Exploding this polyline has lost width information. The UNDO command will restore it. is added to the message.
• To explode a block and keep its attribute values as plain text, use BURST instead.
• The whole explode is one undo step. U puts the original objects back.

Compared with AutoCAD

As in AutoCAD, a block explodes one level at a time, its attributes go back to their definitions, and a polyline’s width is dropped with a warning. Where AutoCAD makes 2D solids of filled arrowheads, Musa CAD makes solid hatches, which look and plot the same.

Next

• Explode blocks but keep their attribute values with BURST.
• Join lines and arcs back into one polyline with JOIN.
• Make your own blocks with BLOCK.