Software Version Upgrades

[Bruce Volden]

I started out with CorelDraw 4, then 5, then 8, 10 and now I have been running CD 11 for the past few? years. My question I want to pose to the members is- Does everybody always run out and get the latest, newest, greatest upon release?? Or do they "wait" to hear about patches, bugs, fixes... before buying. I am aware CD X4 is out and have been following the thread. Personally I am still under XP PRO with CD 11 and can see NO reason whatsoever to ugrade (aside from not being able to open some/most of the attachments on this board :mad:) Oh well, my bad. I have read that CD 5 has the best clip art (agree along with 8), CD Trace 11 is still a great vectoring software IMO. So you pro's, what am I missing that I have overlooked??? Also, how far back to earlier versions can you save your files in CD X3?? Anything else? I am thinking of jumping in with both feet (again) and getting a new computer, software........:confused: I am old and lazy and hate to do this all again but will if the general consensus convinces me to!!!:cool:

Bruce

[Mark Winlund]

The new features in X3 make it worth the price, in my opinion. Once you start down the road of never upgrading, what is your future then? Might as well stick with a pantograph... it still works, sort of.

Mark

[Joe Pelonio]

I jumped from 5 to 12 when I bought the laser, 5 was fine for what I needed before that, but 12 was recommended by Epilog. I did upgrade to X3 mainly for the file importing with many customers using the latest version of Illustrator, and did find that Trace was much better than 12, though I still like my good old Adobe Streamline best (no longer available). With X3 you can save down to level 7.

I am waiting to see what others think of X4, so far haven't heard of anything at would make it worth the trouble and cost. I'm also resisting the switch to Vista for as long as I can.

[Rodne Gold]

X3 is very worthwhile for engravers, signmakers etc. I would thoroughly recommend it.
X4 is a waste of time imho, I downloaded it and its hardly and upgrade from X3, more like a 1/2 hearted service pack. Problem with upgrades in software is that you generally need to upgrade hardware too. With a program like Corel , that tries to be a do it all, some sections are not used by all, thus making it useless if for example you dont use Photopaint.
At any rate , you can DL corel X4 for yourself to try if you got the bandwidth (300mb) and the hardware to run it.

[Scott Shepherd]

X4 seems to be getting the same analysis from many that Rodne gives. I've searched around some looking for reviews and most of the hard core users seem completely unimpressed. There are many needed upgrades (according to those who post about it) and X4 didn't address any of the needed issues, but rather upgraded some minor things.

I had planned to upgrade, but after reading all I could from people who did upgrade, I have changed my plans.

Most powerful thing I have seen from the old versions to X3 is the SmartFill tool. Very handy if you draw much. I've spent hours trying to cut/paste/weld/combine to get the end result, when Smartfill does it in 1 click.

[Bruce Volden]

OK!! lotsa great input! Does X3 have a good trace program?? I do my own vectorizing and really like the "advanced" features of my CD 11 Trace program. If I recall X3 lacked some of these features is this correct?

Bruce

[Rodne Gold]

X3's trace function is wonderful, we get useable output most times. No centreline trace but I find redrawing far better than centreline trace. You can use the aplication launcher to launch your older version of trace if you really need centreline.

[Ed Maloney]

This is the place to get images into a vector format. Much better than Corel.

http://vectormagic.stanford.edu/

[James Stokes]

I have been using corel 11, I down loaded x4 yesterday and it seems a lot differant, some good some bad. I do think it is going to need some patches. I had some problems with editing text (that could just be me) It will definatly take some getting used to.
I had been planning to upgrade to x3 just had not got around to it. I have been having problems with getting my customers to save to a lower version for a while.

[Mike Null]

You've been given good tips. I switched from 11 to X3 because of better file access and improved trace. I believe the knockout feature in PhotoPaint is also improved.

Besides that I think you'll need to be concerned about using 11 on Vista should you need to make that move.

Overall though, I agree that 11 was one of the better versions of Corel.

[James Stokes]

I did not have any problems running version 11 on Vista, Worked perfect.

[Doug Bergstrom]

I agree that X3 was definitely worth the upgrade. We tend to wait as long as possible before upgrading. Many times the upgrade causes more issues than it fixes and in a production environment we just do not have the time to fix the software companies bugs.
On a different note, I see a lot of discussion regarding Trace. I have used many of these programs from Corel, Illustrator, and others always hoping to find they work but they never do. I can go a lot faster recreating with the pen tool than to use a vector creator and then fix the extra nodes it puts in. Does anyone actually have success with these programs?

[Mike Null]

I have used Trace on occasion without needing to modify the art on other occasions it just isn't satisfactory. Generally when I have a clean bitmap it works.

The link to the Stanford vector software is a good one to bookmark as it's a little better than Corel in my opinion.

James
My reference to Vista is with my laptop and it may be something with the laptop that is causing the problem.

[Joe Pelonio]

On a different note, I see a lot of discussion regarding Trace. I have used many of these programs from Corel, Illustrator, and others always hoping to find they work but they never do. I can go a lot faster recreating with the pen tool than to use a vector creator and then fix the extra nodes it puts in. Does anyone actually have success with these programs?
When they give me a clean black and white tif file of the artwork it often does come out perfect the first time with no cleanup, but more often than not it's a color low res jpg that takes extra work. I too often find it easier to recreate it.

[Rodne Gold]

Trace is fine for quick and dirty one offs etc. If we are doing multiples or have to scale up or down , then we redraw manually.
Often what looks like doo doo on screen or zoomed comes out perfectly acceptably when lasered. Sometimes it's just not worth investing time on some graphics.