Broken Heart Vectors

[Joe Peacock]

I have CorelDraw x3 (new user!) and I can't for the life of me figure out how to make a "broken heart" where there are two pieces to the heart and they can be "put back together". I need to cut a bunch of these from a heart that is about 1.5" tall and 2" wide but I can't find the CD tool to cut a jagged line to separate them.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Joe

[Roy Nicholson]

There's only three lines in it...

Two external curves of the heart and the jagged break line.

You can adjust the break line with the shape tool


Hope it helps.

Regards

Roy N.

[Mike Null]

Joe

Welcome to SMC.

See if this will work for you.

[Tom Bull]

Joe, welcome. Are you cutting existing hearts or cutting the entire thing from a blank?
I feel your pain on figuring things out on x3, it is a huge program that does amazing things, but not intuitve for me. If you are cutting existing objects, let us know and I will try to walk you through a way to do it.

[Joe Peacock]

Joe, welcome. Are you cutting existing hearts or cutting the entire thing from a blank?
I feel your pain on figuring things out on x3, it is a huge program that does amazing things, but not intuitve for me. If you are cutting existing objects, let us know and I will try to walk you through a way to do it.
Tom,
I want to cut the broken hearts out of a piece of acrylic and raster a name on each piece. I really don't even know how to draw a heart so I can make them original to me and I sure don't know how to make a heart in to two pieces so that the fit back together.
Joe

[Tom Bull]

This is for Corel x3, so don't know about other versions.
On the left side is a tool called basic shapes, 10th down. Choose that tool (looks like a square, a circle, and a triangle overlapping). At the top of the screen there is a place with a parallelogram (sp?) that has a tiny triangle at the bottom right corner, click on the tiny triangle and a bunch of shapes should appear for your choice. Choose the heart shape. Hold Cntr and click and drag and you will draw a nice symetrical heart. You can click and drag a handle to change the size or shape.

Press F4 to get your heart to be the size of the whole work area.

Next you can use the pen tool located in the tools where the freehand pen is situated, 5th down on the left, click on the tiny triangle to get the tools to fly out and choose the one that looks like a fountain pen. I use it because you can just click, move, click, move, etc. to make connected lines. Draw the zig zag for the broken heart. Make sure your line size is set for "hairline".

After you get the zig zag the way you want, you can zoom in really close by putting your pick tool cursor right on the intersection of the top of your line and your heart and roll your mouse wheel. Select the zig zag, get really close, then press F10. On the end of the line is a tiny square. You can grab the square and pull the end of the line so it perfectly intersects the heart. Press F4, zoom in on the other end of the zig zag, and do the same thing.

F4 again, use the "text tool", the letter A, 11th down on tool bar, to type in the names the way you want, and you have your own custom heart just the way you want it.:D

There probably are some easier ways to do these steps, if so all are welcome to chime in, I want to learn as well.

[Joe Peacock]

Tom,
Thanks for the help!!
Joe

[Joe Peacock]

Tom,
Once I get the heart drawn with the break line in it how do I make it two separate pieces?
Joe

[Dan Hintz]

If the middle line is a hairline, it'll vector cut the heart into two pieces... if it doesn't split into two pieces without a second jagged line, the world as we know it is coming to an end.

[Tom Bull]

Thanks, Dan, you are sooo right. Joe,
I just reviewed your original post, am not sure if you have hearts already.

I assumed you are vector cutting the shape of the heart from your material (have it drawn as a hairline) and it will then cut the zig zag. The two pieces will fit together "perfectly" with almost no kerf.

If you have hearts already I would scan one using the acquire image (found under file.) Use the acquired image and draw a heart around it using the heart tool if you are really blessed. Otherwise draw a heart around it using the inkpen tool. Start at the low place at the top and click, go across to a place to the left and click, go down to the bottom point and click, up to a place just to the right of the first point and click, then double click on the first point. Use the pick tool to select the shape you just made, (not the acquired image, if you have trouble selecting the shape and not the image, then open the object manager docker located under tools. You will see a docker box, if it shows RGB bitmap and curve, then click on the curve. If just shows layer 1, then click on the + mark and you will see both.)
After you have selected the line you drew with the pen tool, press F10. Move the cursor to one of the lines you drew, (the cursor will change appearance) and RIGHT click on the line. A box will appear and choose "to curve". The line will look different and at this point you can click and drag the line to change it's shape to conform to the outside shape of your scanned heart. There will be arrow things that you can click and drag to fine tune the shape. It takes a while to get the hang of it, but then it becomes easy.

Do this to the rest of the lines, until you have a new heart shape that is very slightly larger than your scanned image. If the adjacent lines kind of go nuts when you are pulling on a line, then you have to RIGHT click on the node (tiny little square that joins the lines) between the lines and the box will appear. In the box click on "to cusp." That will cause the adjacent lines to behave.

If your heart is rounded at the bottom and at the low part at the top, then you will need have extra lines to make the shape right.

Once you have a good shape, delete the scan.

Draw in the zig zag.

At this point you have options: you can either cut out a jig to hold you heart for cutting maybe using cardboard, mdf, or acrylic. Or you can mark a reference on something (cardboard, etc.) to align your hearts. I would cut a jig by taping it to my cutting grid and push it snugly into the corner of the engraver. Cut the cardboard, test fit the heart. If it fits OK, then you are good to go: add the text, DELETE THE HEART SHAPE, reset vector power and speed for the heart material, add speed and power for the raster, send the job to the engraver. If it doesn't fit OK, modify the heart shape until it does, maybe as simple as expanding or contracting using a corner handle.

Hope this helps, and once again if there's a faster, easier way I would love to learn it.

[Ed Bagley]

How to draw a perfect heart tutorial.
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/coreldraw/l/bl3dhearts1.htm

[James Rambo]

how about this one

[Joe Peacock]

If the middle line is a hairline, it'll vector cut the heart into two pieces... if it doesn't split into two pieces without a second jagged line, the world as we know it is coming to an end.

Tom,
Sorry, there are a couple of things I forgot to explain!!
I am going to be making a stencil and the customer need to have two separate stencils, one of the left side of the heart and one of the right so they can mark initials or names in the two separate pieces. Is there and easy way to make the heart with the broken line in the middle and then separate the two halves so that there is the same broken line on both so that they will match up?
I also need the two parts of the broken heart to be separate because I am going to use the vectors to import into ArtCam Pro to make molds out of them and I need the vectors to do that with.
If you will PM me I will give you the URL of my company so you can see the molds I am making with ArtCam. The stencils will be a new part of our line.
Thanks,
Joe

[Joseph B. Chritz]

HI Joe,
Check out the smart fill tool. It detects the edges and creates a separate object that can be filled or outlined.

The help file has a good explanation.

[Joe Peacock]

HI Joe,
Check out the smart fill tool. It detects the edges and creates a separate object that can be filled or outlined.

The help file has a good explanation.
Joseph,
Thanks for the input. Once I get them filled, how do I separate them into two distinct halves?
Joe

[Scott Shepherd]

When you use the SmartFill tool on each side, it actually creates a new shape for each side. So that may look attached, but they are 2 separate objects and all you need to do is click on them and move them apart. You also can either delete the original lines and shapes you used to create it, or you can create a new layer and move those unwanted items to a new layer, then turn that layer off for viewing and printing. That way they are there if you need them, but not causing any issues with the remaining objects you are using.

[Chip Peterson]

Learn something new every day. Actually, I need to learn a lot everyday just to keep up with you all.

Any way, the smart fill technique is a handy one to know!

[Randy Walker]

Joe
I just used Tom’s instructions to make the broken heart. Then I duplicated it and used the virtual segment delete tool (found under the crop tool) to remove the left side of one heart and the right side of the other heart. I am using x4 but these two features seem to be in both versions. I am attaching the file (saved in C-10) for you to see and/or do with as you please.
Hope it helps
Randy Walker

[Joe Peacock]

Joe
I just used Tom’s instructions to make the broken heart. Then I duplicated it and used the virtual segment delete tool (found under the crop tool) to remove the left side of one heart and the right side of the other heart. I am using x4 but these two features seem to be in both versions. I am attaching the file (saved in C-10) for you to see and/or do with as you please.
Hope it helps
Randy Walker
Randy,
Thanks for the help
Joe