Corel help, please

[Mitchell Andrus]

I've got a figure that I need to engrave (raster) into solid wood. I'm using the same file to cut the inlays from veneer.

This works on other files, but this one will not allow me to fill areas with black properly. (Areas with dots don't get filled).

I'm assuming there are issues with open areas, nodes not lined up, etc. I just don't have enough experience with X3 to figure out what to do next. Three hours and I'm not getting a handle on it.

Anyone care to have a look? I'm betting it's something simple, I just don't see it.

Thanks.

Mitch

[Lee DeRaud]

I think I see the problem, and the solution is going to be a bit tedious...or at least more time-consuming than I'm willing to deal with this morning. That figure is composed of 82 separate curves, most of them joining/crossing in obscure ways. You're going to need to zoom in and start selecting and combining them to form simpler objects.

Just pick a "hole" and select a point on a boundary curve, then change the outline color to see what it really looks like. Break that curve apart, select the useful chunks and combine them. When you get a curve that encloses an area you want, smart-fill it in a light color and move that blob somewhere else. Repeat for the next hole. When you have all the pieces you need, arrange them, draw a rectangle around them, and smart-fill the exterior.

If all you want is the outer boundary, start selecting curves, breaking them apart, and deleting all the segments inside the boundary. Then select all and combine.

"Plan B" is to blow it up large, convert to bitmap, and retrace it...of course, if that's how you got here in the first place, that probably won't work.

Sorry, no magic bullet: that is one seriously messed-up figure.

[Mitchell Andrus]

One messed up figure... YEP!

It wasn't designed to be fiddled with in a graphics program. It started out as an Autocad sketch and was meant to be printed out and cut with a scroll saw.

I think I got it.

I beefed up the line thickness and converted it into a bitmap at 1200 dpi. I then traced as line art and filled the areas I needed....

Gonna take some adjusting, but it worked - as long as scaling doesn't go out the window....

Lee, thanks for the suggestion.

Mitch

[Mike Mackenzie]

Mitch,

Is this what you are looking for?

[Lee DeRaud]

Here's the outer boundary (filled), from your original, if that helps...
40677

For what it's worth: Smart-Fill really doesn't like "dirty" corners: an intersection of two open curves where one or both lines overshoot (i.e. don't come together at a common node) is just as bad as if they don't meet at all and leave a opening for the fill to "leak" through.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Mike... very nice, and colorful. How'd you do it - so fast? I ran out of ideas (new at X3 too!)

Lee, could come in handy, but I need the open spaces to show the base material. Like this:

Mitch

[Mike Mackenzie]

Mitch,

The biggest problem with the file was the overlapping lines. This happens a lot when you import autocad files into Corel. I eliminated all of the duplicate layers and then broke apart certain sections of the lines then combined them seperatly and joined the OPEN nodes. I use the different colors so I know what was done and what need to be done. Keep in mind that if you use this same file for the vector cutting it will not be in one pc. make a duplicate of this file and then remove the fill anyware you see a line that crosses through a section should have two lines in it one to hold one filled section and another to hold the second filled section.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Thanks, Mike.

Separating parts 'n pieces for vector cuts was the easy part - did that first. Unfortunately, WYSIWYG isn't enough when it comes to this stuff...

Funny, looks good on paper....

Thanks again.

Mitch

[Lee DeRaud]

Lee, could come in handy, but I need the open spaces to show the base material.No worries...I couldn't tell from the original what (if any) was supposed to be substrate vs inlay.