Corel boundary tool problem.

[David Linahan]

Hi,
My problem is, I've created a design that I want to place a cut line around. It's a trophy that is for a car club I'm in and they will need about 20 of them. The thing is, when I try to use the boundary tool to creat a new outline to be used as the cutline with a 3 millimeter offset, the program crashes. I've tried the same design on 2 other computers all running CorelDRAW X6 and they crash as well. The boundary tool works on everything else I've tried it on...just not on the thing I need most. Any one have any ideas as to what is causing this trouble?

Thanks..Dave

[David Linahan]

Well, not long after I posted my question I worked out a way of getting the result I wanted. I converted my design to a bitmap, then outline traced it as line art. Then I ungrouped / boundary/ contour / break contour group apart / converted outline to a hairline /cut and pasted onto my design / aligned and saved...opened large can of beer...yelled..YAYYY!!

I know that there is a "proper" way of performing this task...but my brain melted...

Dave..

[Mike Null]

Dave

In a situation like this it would be helpful for us to see the file. To do that you would need to save it back to something like a version 11 so that those of us who do not have the latest version on Corel can open the file.

Glad you found a work-around.

[Dan Hintz]

ANY crash, no matter the reason, should be submitted as a bug report... no sense fighting with a tool that is obviously broken.

[Kev Williams]

Glad you found a fix for your problem-- now explain to me how you can offset the outline by 3mm? (sorry if that's a dumb question, but I've always learned Corel on the fly...).

[Mike Lassiter]

Use the contour and do 1 step with the 3mm offset. Contour outside boundary

[Guy Hilliard]

Or you could duplicate the outline, change the duplicate outline to be 6mm wide (2 X 3mm), change outline to object, break apart, and delete inner line.

Uncle Bob

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

A few different things I would have tried.... When I have had problems with the "create boundary" tool, it's because there was something wonky with the graphic. Lots of different factors, but often it had to do with an outline having a break in the line when it shouldn't or an outline didn't overlap when I zoomed in and Corel was trying to make a boundary a gazillion miles long around a graphic. Another one was the fill was off and I had to turn off "Fill Open Curves" under Tools, Options, Workspace General so that I could see the object was not closed.

After exhausting everything I could with the boundary, I would have grouped the items and then right-click and Lock Object to the workspace. I would then open a new layer and trace/draw the outline I needed. Because the graphic was "locked" on the other layer, you can't click and move it around accidentally while drawing the lines.

[Kev Williams]

Well, Duh.. In all these years (almost 11) I've never messed with (never needed to) the "interactive fill tool", so I didn't even know there WAS such a thing as the "contour tool"... wow...

Many thanks!

[David Linahan]

Sorry I'm so late getting back to this. I tend to think the problem was something like Mike Chance has suggested. My skills with Corel can only improve, so there is every chance the graphic has an open end or most likely many open ends. I did a modified version of the original design for the "Car of the Show" award. I tried the boundary tool again...it did do it...I thought it was about to crash it took that long. However the boundaries created were "inside" the design as well, which makes me think I need to tidy up some loose ends.

Thanks, Dave.