PLineTools is a set of tools allowing easy edition, modification and creation of 2D or 3D polylines.

1. Reminder on polylines : since Autocad version 14, we differentiate 2 types of polylines :

• "Heavy" polylines (POLYLINE) used to represent 3D polylines and fitted or splined 2D polylines.
• "Lightweight or optimized" polylines (LWPOLYLINE) used to represent "simple" 2D polylines. The system variable PLINETYPE manages the way polylines are created (by default = 2, use Lightweight polylines).

Warning, polyface meshes and surface meshes are special POLYLINE entities that can not be used with PLineTools and will keep the program from working without error message. Use FP_SUP1SOM tool to detect them.

Moreover, most of PLineTools functions must be used in the world coordinate system. Entities not parallel to this UCS will cause an error or an unexpected result. Use FP_SUP1SOM tool to detect them.

2. Program usage : in PlineTools, there is 2 types of commands : a) commands applying to a selection sets, and b) commands applying to a single polyline at a time.

a) commands applying to a selection sets generally shows on the command line :

>> <ENTER> to proceed or [Help/Options/ESCAPE to terminate] :

Enter H to access the Quick Help of the command : a dialog box will show up, reminding you the command behaviour. Enter O to access command options (if applicable, some commands don't have any option), ESCAPE to terminate the command, or ENTER to select polylines and continue the command.

b) commands applying to a single polyline at a time generally shows on the command line :

>> Click a 2D/3D polyline or [Help/Options/ENTER to terminate] :

Enter H to access the Quick Help of the command : a dialog box will show up, reminding you the command behaviour. Enter O to access command options (if applicable, some commands don't have any option), ENTER to terminate the command, otherwise click a polyline.

3. Choice of the part of a polyline to process : during certain commands on closed polylines, you will have to choose which part of the polyline must be processed. Indeed, when a polyline is closed, there are 2 ways to walk through it : a temporary polyline will show a possible solution, click the left button of the mouse to switch to the other possible solution, or click the right button to validate.

Select the part to process using the mouse button.

4. Important functions : there are 2 very important functions that you should use before any other, because they allow to find malformed polylines : FP_SUP1SOM and FP_EPURE. Please read the help topics about these functions.