Newbie Coreldraw Vector Question

[Jacob John]

Good morning everyone,

I spent last night banging my head against a wall trying to learn about Corel and cutting vector images. I'm trying to cut what is essentially a coat of arms that isn't very intricate. For some reason, I cannot get Corel to simply outline the outer edge of the image. I spent hours last night reading this forum and others, but have not been able to get it to do anything but raster. I tried tracing the image which works fine at converting from a bitmap to vector, using boundary for outlining the edge, but when I go to cut and raster, it only engraves the image. One thing I tried and I noticed it changed the physical look of the image was stroke settings. I changed it to hairline with no back fill after tracing the image, and it appears to get lighter and smaller lines.

I'm sure I'm overlooking something simple, but so far I'm at a loss. I checked my print settings too, but can't find it. Anyone have any ideas?

[Jeanette Brewer]

Jacob,

With your new laser, you should have received the login information for the online "virtual" training suite. As I recall, there is a lesson showing the differences between raster & vector engraving in that suite.

Additionally, there are a couple of Corel Trace videos in our Youtube channel. See if one of these videos gives you what you need...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA7eEaKbwuU&index=19&list=UUipwFSiWyEBpbair2qtsgSg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKLjVV2cf5w&list=UUipwFSiWyEBpbair2qtsgSg&index=20

[Bill George]

Good morning everyone,

I spent last night banging my head against a wall trying to learn about Corel and cutting vector images. I'm trying to cut what is essentially a coat of arms that isn't very intricate. For some reason, I cannot get Corel to simply outline the outer edge of the image. I spent hours last night reading this forum and others, but have not been able to get it to do anything but raster. I tried tracing the image which works fine at converting from a bitmap to vector, using boundary for outlining the edge, but when I go to cut and raster, it only engraves the image. One thing I tried and I noticed it changed the physical look of the image was stroke settings. I changed it to hairline with no back fill after tracing the image, and it appears to get lighter and smaller lines.

I'm sure I'm overlooking something simple, but so far I'm at a loss. I checked my print settings too, but can't find it. Anyone have any ideas?

What machine and what version of Corel?

Or you might do what I did after whining and complaining about a video editing program, I did a couple of those automated tutorials I hate. Duh, its now pretty simple....

[Jacob John]

What machine and what version of Corel?

Or you might do what I did after whining and complaining about a video editing program, I did a couple of those automated tutorials I hate. Duh, its now pretty simple....

I went through about 10 video tutorials last night, and read about 15 different ways to achieve the cut. None of them worked unfortunately. I know it's probably something very simple. I actually managed to accidentally vector cut last night but I can't reproduce the results. It was a more basic image than what I'm trying to cut now with single lines. I simply set the image to no back fill, and the stroke to hairline black. I then used the curve setting and it cut fine. Strange that i can't reproduce it. The image I'm trying to cut now has lots of lines like you would see in a family crest.

Maybe I'll just go back to Illustrator where I'm more comfortable. :D

[Jacob John]

Jacob,

With your new laser, you should have received the login information for the online "virtual" training suite. As I recall, there is a lesson showing the differences between raster & vector engraving in that suite.

Additionally, there are a couple of Corel Trace videos in our Youtube channel. See if one of these videos gives you what you need...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA7eEaKbwuU&index=19&list=UUipwFSiWyEBpbair2qtsgSg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKLjVV2cf5w&list=UUipwFSiWyEBpbair2qtsgSg&index=20

Thank you Jeanette. I actually purchased this laser second hand, not through you guys, but don't worry, I'll be upgrading soon. :)

[Bert Kemp]

Whats your machine??? make surevector lines in corel is set to hairline.

[Jacob John]

Whats your machine??? make sure everything in corel is set to hairline.

I have an Epilog Mini 18, 35 watt. The settings were definitely changed to hairline. I verified that more than once. That's why I'm confused. I've literally tried several different ways, even using Corel-Photo paint to remove the background, but still nothing.

[Bert Kemp]

if there hairline and red then I have no Idea , I would say its in the epilog settings and not corel settings.

[Robert Bonenfant]

Use a black and white image and use the trace option in coreldraw (Theres tons of trace options but a simple trace will work, If you right click a Jpeg Image after you import it, it should work) - It is very simple. It will trace the black lines and give you a nice drawling. Try google or shutter stock for silhouette images of the design your looking for. I also made free hand designs with pencil and paper and then scanned them into CorelDraw. The key is to use a black and white image or make your colored image black and white.

[Tony Lenkic]

Robert,

Make sure "Color Management" is turned off and set Corel to RGB.

[Ron Gosnell]

Run the outline by itself that you made after converting from bitmap to vector without the bitmap and see if it cuts. If it does try to place the bitmap image inside the outline using powerclip and it should be good to go..

Gozzie

[Jacob John]

Run the outline by itself that you made after converting from bitmap to vector without the bitmap and see if it cuts. If it does try to place the bitmap image inside the outline using powerclip and it should be good to go..

Gozzie

Now this is something I haven't tried yet. Thanks for the tip.

[Steve Clarkson]

Click Print...then select preferences.......then click on vector.....your options should be Raster, Vector or combined.....select vector.

[Jacob John]

Click Print...then select preferences.......then click on vector.....your options should be Raster, Vector or combined.....select vector.

That was done as well. It was actually combination because the crest has some text inside of it. It's strange because I was successful with another image with text, but that image was only a single line image. This one has curves and other details plus text. I checked every single time I printed to make sure the settings were correct.

[Mike Null]

Is your vector color set to rgb red and your line set to hairline?

[Jacob John]

Is your vector color set to rgb red and your line set to hairline?


Yep, those are the things that I check every single time I've tried to cut. I always go back to the simplest of things that could prevent it from cutting. I'm telling you, I'm at a loss right now and have tried just about every solution I can find online. I'm back home now so I'm going to start from scratch with a new image and go through all of the steps again. :)

[Jacob John]

I figured it out, and I feel like a complete buffoon, but I'm posting this anyway while eating a helping of crow, in hopes that it might help someone else. :D

Ok, so here's my fatal mistake. After I traced the bitmap and converted it into a vector image, I didn't notice the "Group of 8 Objects" that remained. So I took the group of objects and created a boundary, then discarded the group of objects. I took the boundary curve that was created and placed it on top of the bitmap image. Cut it out, and it was perfect. If you don't do something with those objects, it tries to vector every single one of them resulting in multiple vector cuts, even some that pass over the same area.

Glad I got that fixed!

[Roy Sanders]

Hi. It needs to be hairline and RED. The red is universal cut color.

Roy

[Jacob John]

Hi. It needs to be hairline and RED. The red is universal cut color.

Roy

Thanks Roy, I had it set to red, and made sure of that before trying to cut. I really have no explanation as to why it wouldn't cut. The only thing I can think of is that after setting it to hairline red, it somehow didn't take a few times, resulting in an engraving only. I was up way too late last night trying to fix it.

[Ron Gosnell]

Glad you found it. Good job

Gozzie

[Jim Coffee]

You might consider simply vector cutting a shape...such as a square or circle. This will give you clean "layer" information...etc. You'll have a better view of what you are trying to do. Once you've got that accomplished graduate to cutting out a piece of artwork.


Make a circle or square.
Ensure that the outline is Hairline
In the printer dialogue box ensure either Vector or Combination
Add in some speed and power
engrave.