help with this map - corel question

[Jeff Wilkins]

This is a map of germany that I want to have a red line around the perimeter to cut it from BB and then black lines for the provinces in black to vector cut at a lower power to just burn. I am stuck. I don't really want you to do it for me, but just explain the steps I need to get it done. I took the picture and was able to trace it, now it is modifing that tracing that has me stumped :) Thanks for your help.

[Jeff Belany]

Not sure if this is what you want. I'm sure there are better ways, I'm certainly no expert. I edited the color map, made it all black using the Gamma, brightness/contrast and such with a little touchup with the brush tool. Brought it back into Draw, outline traced it, then deleted the color and added a hairline. Then made the provinces a 2 pt line to raster. Put the two over each other which should make the outside cut and inside raster. Needs some cleanup with the islands on the top I assume. Cheap and dirty but I think it will work but didn't try it. Giv eit a shot.

Jeff in northern Wisconsin

[Martin Boekers]

What version of Corel do you have?

[Darryl Hazen]

Jeff,
Select all of the provinces, Group them then select 0.5 for an outline. That will allow them to be rastered. Then select the entire grouped object and then select contour. That will create an outline around the entire group. Select hairline for the size and select red so you can verify the lines. That should give you what you're looking for

[Glen Monaghan]

Maybe there's a faster/easier way, but taking what you have done so far, you can select all the outline parts, copy, paste, and weld to get just the outline (well, almost; you have two glitches, one a tiny bit near the intersection of Hessen, Bayern, and Baden-Wurttemberg, plus the entire border between Saarland and Rhineland-Pfalz, which you will need to delete before continuing). Change the outline color of this cleaned-up weld to red for the cutline.

If you don't mind wasting the time vectoring over the cutline while outlining the provinces, then you are done.

I don't know of a quick and easy way to eliminate the duplicate/overlap, but you can at least zoom in, break the curve of each outer province where it first contacts a neighbor to isolate the areas where the province borders are also the country borders, select those nodes and delete.

-Glen

[Jeff Wilkins]

X5 is the version i have

[Martin Boekers]

The reason I ask is X5 has a virtual segment tool which is great fo cleaning up
lines. Search You Tube to see how it works. Is this goint to be a solid piece
or are you trying to make a "jigsaw puzzle" from it?

[Jeff Wilkins]

Solid piece with vectored lines that do not fully cut through for the provinces.

[Martin Boekers]

So am I right to assume that you are going to vector the provinces as it may be quicker than raster engraving?

[Jeff Wilkins]

Yes. I grouped the provinces and then I copied and pasted them did a weld and changed to red outline for it. I then moved that back over the black provinces. Two issues, the perimeter is going to get vectored in black (low power) and then vectored again in red (high power - cut all the way through). This is very inefficient. Also, every line between provinces is actually 2 black lines on top of each other so they get double cut in black (low power). Does anyone know how to remove one of the sets of lines that are exactly on top of each other or how to "melt" the two layers together so only the red line in the outline shows? Would using the fit in container (don't know the actual command) work for that?