Corel Question - How To Find Vertical or Horizontal Curve Segments

[Mike DeRegnaucourt]

Hello,

Does anyone know how in Corel to find portions of curves that are vertical (or horizontal)? I have several curves on a page and I want to be able to search for the "segments" of those curves that are either aligned with the X-axis or Y-axis depending on whether I am searching for horizontal or vertical segments respectively. Can this even be done or would it require writing some sort of macro maybe? Please see the image for help in explaining what I am trying to accomplish.

I've been searching Sawmillcreek and the internet to no avail thus far.

345380

Thanks,
Mike

[Mike Null]

Mike

I can't offer much help with your question but Oberon has been around for years and is probably the one place where you can find your answer. https://www.oberonplace.com/index.htm

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

"Why" are you wanting this feature?
I find I can just zoom in and look to see if they're upright, flat, or different.

[Kev Williams]

This is one of the ironies of Corel that drive me nuts...

Go into "find and replace"...
under "objects" you can choose: curves, rectangles, ellipses, polygons, stars, complex stars, interactive connector lines---

"fills" doesn't apply, "outlines" you can choose by color (I guess)--

under the "special effects" tab: envelope, perspective, blend, vector extrude, contour, lens, power clip, bitmap color mask, transparency, distortion drop shadow, rollover---

The two mysteriously missing objects in this impressive and extensive list?

Horizontal Line
Vertical Line
http://www.engraver1.com/gifs/thinking.gif

[David Somers]

For what it is worth, I just took a little time (not a great deal mind you.....got a load on my plate right now) and couldn't find an immediately obvious way to do this. Maybe a macro....but the time it would take to prepare it would probably exceed the time it took you to search by eye? Unless this is a very difficult set of objects.

Sorry am not more help than that.

Kev, Like you, I have rarely found Corel search functions to do much for me. But then I never bothered about them too much, or felt a real need to search for things. My objects, except for snowflakes and other ornaments are not all that complicated.

[Kev Williams]

I drew a similar design in Corel to Mike's sample, using the pen tool. It was all radiused curves except for one horizontal line and one vertical line. I wanted to see if I could get Corel to find the second straight line after selecting the first one. The only way I could figure out how to do this was to break apart all the nodes. I did this by selecting the shape tool, then drew a box around the graphic so all nodes were selected, then right clicked "break apart". The graphic was still 'combined' so I un-combined it. Now each section was separate. So I selected the horizontal line, then went to 'find and replace/find objects' and chose 'find objects that match the currently selected object'. I thought it would find the straight line as it's just 2 nodes.

Nope. Well, yes, it found the other straight line, but it found EVERY section between 2 nodes. No way to select just a straight line, at least that I can tell...

Now for a bit of hijack while we're on the subject ;)

--I've used the 'find objects' before to find identical objects so I could delete them, but that's about it. I've tried 'find and replace' to no avail, sadly--because if I could get IT to do what I want, it would save me 20 minutes on every new DXF drawing for an operator panel I get. These drawings have square-shaped and round shaped symbols representing 2 sizes of blind stud bosses, which I have change to my own cut path pattern. Also, these panels have several LED holes that measure .205", represented in this graphic:
345447
All circles: the yellow is the cut path, the gray represents the 1/16" endmill cut width-
Left circle represents simply cutting the hole. The problem is the "donut hole" left over in the middle, which is a small, solid post of aluminum. If this post gets in the way when the endmill raises out of the cut hole, it'll jam the endmill and break it.
To avoid this, note the center circle, and that I've added a minor hatch-fill. The cut path starts at the upper-right end point, goes down, left, up, then finishes the circle. This cuts away all of the middle first, no post, no more broken $8 endmills--
--the right circle is just an enlargement for visual reference, if I was cutting a hole this big, I'd simply add more hatch lines to insure all the middle cuts away...

So my problem is, how do I "find" the actual circle--which is easy-- and replace is with my cut path -- NOT easy! Same applies to changing blind stud 'markings' to my cut path graphic...

It may be easy enough to do, but I can't figure out how to tell Corel what "my" object is. Being able to do this would be SOOOO much faster than manually placing my paths within the originals then deleting the originals...

[Ross Moshinsky]

Kev, tell them to redraw everything so that it represents the actual size. Then bring it into Gravostyle and program the toolpaths to do a pocket or island fill. Problem solved. If they do the right thing and break the drawing in 2 or 3 different files or layers, it will make selecting the right parts a breeze.

[Kev Williams]

Yeah, I wish :) ... The local guys who draw the prints try their best to help me, but their parent company is in Austria, and everything must be done their way. The only English on the prints is the text on the panels.

I've never tried letting Gravo do a fill to cut small holes, that's a good idea. I just drew up a quick test and it'll work fine. THAT will save me some time right there! --I'm a creature of habit, I've been adding my own 'specialty' hatch fills since forever. ;) (and it took me a long time to get used to Gravo's fill issues)

The blind stud thing (I use PEM stud) is a different story, and actually, they're the reason I got this job- These panels were originally made in Austria by the parent company, and they were spot welding the studs on the back. And the weight of what they were holding up kept pulling them off. One of the local engineers asked if I had any bright ideas on how to fix the stud problem, and I explained PEM studs, AND that I could install them, and for that matter, they should just let me make the dang panels... So they did! They've been my #1 customer ever since...

Anyway, back to the studs as on the prints-- all they're concerned with is the stud size, thread pitch and length, and that's what the symbols on the prints represent. Different size studs need different size holes to be pressed into. I've talked to them about having them just add a correct size circle in the file that corresponds with the hole I need to make for each size stud, but Austria won't allow the change.

So I'm stuck changing symbols to holes, which is why I wish I could get Corel to do it! http://www.engraver1.com/gifs/banghead.gif

[Ross Moshinsky]

Gravostyle will do that too. Select all the like shapes. Go to the "Drill" option. Select circle, type in the size and then choose the center point option. This will place a circle at the center of the object at the correct size. In this circumstance, you cannot group the shapes together as that will result in the circle being placed at the center of the group. The circles should all be grouped together though.

I've used this for multiplate plaques MANY times.

[Mike DeRegnaucourt]

Breaking apart all objects and visually selecting all vertical and/or horizontal segments would be very time consuming. I know that is one way. What I was looking for was a quicker way to accomplish this task without all the "by hand" fiddling. It might be possible with some sort of macro. If I were to write one, I wonder if there was a need for such a more robust search/replace macro? I would be willing to write a macro if there was a signficant need out there but maybe it is just me needing such a feature.

Thanks,
Mike

[David Somers]

Mike,

I am not doing the kind of production work that most of our crew does. (or at least the folks trying to help you here do a lot of production stuff) For myself, I cant think when I have had the need for this type of thing. The most I have needed a macro to do was locate duplicate objects hiding under the original, a byproduct of some autotrace routines I was doing. That is as complicated as I have needed so far. You might try opening another thread titled to get the attention of all the production folks and see if there is interest?

Dave

[Kev Williams]

I don't do macros, so this may sound dumb (not a stretch for me!) but--isn't a macro just a 'recording' of a series of things you have Corel do that you can 'playback' later? If so, how can a macro be written to do something that you can't get Corel to do in the first place? (catch-22?)
;)

[Lee DeRaud]

I don't do macros, so this may sound dumb (not a stretch for me!) but--isn't a macro just a 'recording' of a series of things you have Corel do that you can 'playback' later? If so, how can a macro be written to do something that you can't get Corel to do in the first place? (catch-22?)
;)Corel macros are really VBA programs that have full access to the underlying drawing object model: much more powerful than the simple command playback that the name "macro" implies.

In this case it needs to traverse the drawing looking for curves, then walk the segments of each curve looking for straight-line segments that have identical X or Y coordinates. There are some tricks required to deal with curves embedded in groups and things like that, but on the whole the process is relatively simple. There's a PDF buried somewhere in the install directory tree that describes the general macro development process with some useful examples.

[EDIT]Check this thread...there's an example macro in there that does a traverse-and-modify:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?145782-Corel-Question

[Bill Reibelt]

Hello,

Does anyone know how in Corel to find portions of curves that are vertical (or horizontal)? I have several curves on a page and I want to be able to search for the "segments" of those curves that are either aligned with the X-axis or Y-axis depending on whether I am searching for horizontal or vertical segments respectively. Can this even be done or would it require writing some sort of macro maybe? Please see the image for help in explaining what I am trying to accomplish.

I've been searching Sawmillcreek and the internet to no avail thus far.

345380

Thanks,
Mike
The easy way is to draw a box in Corel and move it around the drawing and you will find all of the areas that you want.

[Gary Hair]

I don't do macros, so this may sound dumb (not a stretch for me!) but--isn't a macro just a 'recording' of a series of things you have Corel do that you can 'playback' later? If so, how can a macro be written to do something that you can't get Corel to do in the first place? (catch-22?)
;)

That is one way to create a macro and I have done that many times to get a jump-start on something. I record the macro then modify it to do what I want it to do by adding in the VBA code to accomplish the task.

[Kev Williams]

The only macro I ever created, mostly just to see what it would do, was to automatically put guidelines at 4" from left and 2" from the top. (That's my LS900 "0" until I get my X belt replaced)
--problem is, to find and activate the macro takes more steps than just putting the lines in manually! ;)

One of these days I may find the time to learn this stuff!

[Lee DeRaud]

--problem is, to find and activate the macro takes more steps than just putting the lines in manually! ;)As I recall, there's a way to set up a macro so it auto-executes every time a file is opened.

[Gary Hair]

The only macro I ever created, mostly just to see what it would do, was to automatically put guidelines at 4" from left and 2" from the top. (That's my LS900 "0" until I get my X belt replaced)
--problem is, to find and activate the macro takes more steps than just putting the lines in manually! ;)

One of these days I may find the time to learn this stuff!

You can either have it execute when you open the file or add it to the toolbar and just click on it - either way is pretty easy to setup.

[Mike DeRegnaucourt]

In this case it needs to traverse the drawing looking for curves, then walk the segments of each curve looking for straight-line segments that have identical X or Y coordinates. There are some tricks required to deal with curves embedded in groups and things like that, but on the whole the process is relatively simple. There's a PDF buried somewhere in the install directory tree that describes the general macro development process with some useful examples.

Lee, that is how I was thinking the same sort of idea as to how it might be accomplished too. I started looking at the VBA PDF that came with my Corel CDs. Thank you for the link! I will check it out.

Thanks again for the ideas and help.