Explode

The explode command breaks a Polyline into its individual Line and Arc entities — one per segment, exactly where the polyline’s own vertices were. The pieces replace the polyline in place and keep its lineweight, color, layer, and linetype.

Explode works on Polyline entities only.

Using explode

Two ways to run it, the same pattern as Delete:

Pre-select, then explode — the fastest path:

1. Select one or more polylines on the canvas.
2. Type explode in the terminal, or click the Explode toolbar button in the Edit panel.

The selected polylines are exploded instantly — no separate confirmation step, since something is already selected.

Activate, then select:

1. Type explode or click the toolbar button with nothing selected.
2. Select polylines — click to toggle, or drag to select by area.
3. Press Enter or Space to confirm and explode the selected polylines.

Only polylines are picked up during selection — clicking a Line, Circle, or any other entity does nothing, and an area drag ignores everything except the polylines inside or crossing it.

What comes out

Every segment of the polyline becomes its own entity:

• A straight segment becomes a Line.
• An arc segment (from Polyline’s Arc option) becomes an Arc, matching the original curve’s center, radius, and sweep exactly.

Each resulting Line and Arc inherits the source polyline’s lineweight, color, layer, linetype, and linetype scale — nothing about how the geometry looks changes, only that it’s now several independent entities instead of one connected polyline.

The explode is undoable as a single step with Undo, like any other edit.

Selection during the command

Supported entities