CorelDraw Question

[Skip Weiser]

Hi folks,

I've searched the forums for the answer to this question and I thought I remember reading it somewhere on SMC but I can't find it again.

I've downloaded some of the nice ornament designs that were posted here earlier. I opened one in Corel 12 that had a couple of nice star ornaments.

The trouble is that there are about 10 or more duplicate lines on top of one another. You only see the one design but if you select a segment and hit delete, it's still there. I selected it and hit delete about 10 times and didn't get to the bottom line.

I've ran into this before in Corel when importing .dxf's and other formats, but what's the quick fix? I selected the whole drawing and tried to weld it but I got the hourglass for over 5 minutes and I got impatient and shut it down. Will weld do the trick?

Thanks,
Skip

[Ed Newbold]

Is it possible to get a copy of that troublesome design so I can take a shot at answering the question?

Thanks,

[Joe Pelonio]

Here's what I do, works fast if not too much detail.

Select the first line, hold shift and select the rest. This means you are getting the top ones only, not the hidden ones beneath.

Group them

Edit, cut (moves it into the clipboard)

Delete what's left

Edit, Paste

You'll have it ready to cut.

[Skip Weiser]

Is it possible to get a copy of that troublesome design so I can take a shot at answering the question?

Thanks,

Hi Ed,

Thanks for the reply.

I have 2 pc's, one in the house here that is online, and one in my shop that runs my router and laser. I won't connect the shop one to the internet or I'd never get anything done.

I put files on a CD to load them on the shop PC as needed. I just checked the ornament design that's on this PC and it's fine with no stacked lines. I was going to attach it to show you the problem but there is no problem. Somehow the one I put on the shop PC ended up with the stacked lines. That is weird....

I'm going to have to research this a little more to see why the heck the .cdr file got messed up just by burning it on a CD and loading it on the other computer.

Thanks,
Skip

[Skip Weiser]

Here's what I do, works fast if not too much detail.

Select the first line, hold shift and select the rest. This means you are getting the top ones only, not the hidden ones beneath.

Group them

Edit, cut (moves it into the clipboard)

Delete what's left

Edit, Paste

You'll have it ready to cut.

Thank you, Joe. I will try that !!!

Skip

[Ed Newbold]

-Select the first line, hold shift and select the rest. This means you are getting the top ones only, not the hidden ones beneath.
-Group them.
-Edit, cut (moves it into the clipboard).
-Delete what's left.
-Edit, Paste.Jeeze, Joe, that's WAYYYY too easy. (Wonder why I didn't think of that first)!

Great tip. Thanks,

[Lee DeRaud]

Doesn't 'select all', 'arrange', 'simplify' do the same thing?

[Joe Pelonio]

I've had mixed results with that Lee, on the DXF/DWGs. it should work though.

[Skip Weiser]

Okay, here's what's happening with this file. In Corel format the file is fine. If I save it as .ai or .dxf and import it back into Corel, then there are 20 lines on top of lines. Same thing if I import it into my laser software as an .ai or .dxf.

Joe, what you told me to do above would work, but there must be 100 or more segments that I'd have to select, and I'm sure I'd miss some. I tried to weld but I got the hourglass forever and it didn't finish, or I didn't let it finish. Same with trying to simplify. If I had time, maybe tonight, I'll let it run with the hourglass and see if it ever does finish.

Thanks for your help guys.

Skip

[Mark Winlund]

I don't believe that Corel will do this (except for the hard way). Flexisign pro has an automatic join function that will join ends if they are within so many pixels apart. I have used this function, and it works. I am not sure about the duplicate lines, however. One program that will do it all is Vcarve Pro... it has a "select duplicate vectors" function as well as an automatic join function. Most of the router folks have been standardizing on this program because of its low cost and high functionality.

Mark

[Skip Weiser]

Here's the file that's giving me a hard time, if anyone wants to see what happens when saved as .ai and imported back into Corel. It's in Corel 10 format.

I did just notice what looks like breaks in the lines in simple wireframe mode. Maybe that's the problem.

Thanks,
Skip

[George Elston]

Here's your snowflake as single lines, total time 30 min, 25 of that seeing that this file is FRELLED, (hope I can use that word, the other descriptions I know would not be allowed) 5 min for the fix.

How did I do it, I CHEATED

Export to BW tif, open in Trace, save, open in corel, cleanup a little and save.

Quote from my Grandfather, "If it's taking you that long to do it, your doing it wrong"

[Roy Brewer]

The trouble is that there are about 10 or more duplicate lines on top of one another. Skip,

Somewhere over 98% of the dupe lines will be removed from a DXF import in you will be sure the AutoReduceNodes box is checked (you'll find this on the options just before you give the import the final OK).

[Skip Weiser]

Here's your snowflake as single lines, total time 30 min, 25 of that seeing that this file is FRELLED, (hope I can use that word, the other descriptions I know would not be allowed) 5 min for the fix.

How did I do it, I CHEATED

Export to BW tif, open in Trace, save, open in corel, cleanup a little and save.

Quote from my Grandfather, "If it's taking you that long to do it, your doing it wrong"

George, you are my hero. You not only fixed this critter, you also told me a fast way to fix the other snowflake that was with this one. It's the same way, FRELLED UP. Thank you !!! And thanks to the other posters who tried to help. You're a good bunch of people here.

George, your Grandfather was a wise man.....

Skip

[Skip Weiser]

Skip,

Somewhere over 98% of the dupe lines will be removed from a DXF import in you will be sure the AutoReduceNodes box is checked (you'll find this on the options just before you give the import the final OK).

Thanks Roy. I tried that with this file and it didn't help. I think it's because many of the lines nodes weren't closed. I could be wrong but thanks for your input, I appreciate it.

Thanks,
Skip

[Scott Challoner]

If I draw something in AutoCAD, I don't mess around with dxf anymore. I print to pdf (SourceForge has a free PDFCreator) and import the pdf into Corel. Works great with no extra lines without too much hassle. Might work in this situation too.

[Mike Null]

In this instance, since most of what you want is an outside cut line you can select the drawing then in the area where "weld simplify etc" are located the far right box is one which creates a new object that surrounds the existing one. Click, move to the side, then draw one of the small interior diamonds and place in each of the snowflake ends.

This is the same as "create boundary".

[Skip Weiser]

Thanks Mike and Scott !!!