can anyone help with using layers in corel?

[Simon Strom]

Hiya Harry, You using CorelDraw or Illustrator?

[Warren Beard]

I think it’s all the same really and quiet simple (once you know)

Simply make a new layer and name it so you know what is on it for ease. Normally your first layer will be the artwork that remains constant then each additional layer will be each changing design.

Simply select the layer you want to work on and anything you create will be on that layer.

To move things to a different layer (so you can clone something and then move it to the appropriate layer) you should have a function to assign it to the layer of your choice.

If you keep switching them on and off it helps get a clearer and better grasp of them as you work through especially if you have a lot of layers.

[Simon Strom]

Thanks for the input Warren. I’ve never used CorelDraw so I didn’t want to guess about it. I don’t use layers to much now, but I use to draw maps for my company and it was definitely a life saver when it came to organizing the drawing. In Illustrator if you select some art in one layer you can move it to another by sliding the dot on the right hand side to the new layer. That will move the objects from one layer to another. You could also do Warren suggested and copy from one layer and then paste in the new. That would of course duplicate the artwork in both layers. You can also set a layer as a template if you need to trace something. Sorry if you already new this info though. 😀

[Harry Cleary]

Cheers folks, have been messing around with your advice and to be honest I can’t figure out how I never got to grips with this before! So bloody handy for a lot of the things I do.

quote Simon Strom:

but I use to draw maps for my company and it was definitely a life saver when it came to organizing the drawing.

That’s exactly what I am doing…maps! 😀

[Simon Strom]

No problem! Let us know if you have any other problems or questions about the layers or if you have any map questions I might be able to answer.

[Harry Cleary]

Thanks Simon, it’s a map for a festival and it is tough to organise all the info and way-finding so that it is easy to understand.
Do you know of any inspiration sites for map making or infographics?

[Simon Strom]

Here are a few resources for Wayfinding. I’ve never done much of that myself as we have a department of about 6 people that deal with that (although I work closely with them everyday). Here are a few sites that might help some though.

SEGD
http://www.segd.org/shop/98/239/wayfinding.html

MUTCD
http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009/part2/part2d.htm

Corbin Design
http://www.corbindesign.com/wayfindings/

You might even check out some libraries for some info since it wouldn’t cost you anything. I do know that the more info you get from the customer the better. Especially excel files for any names that you might need or even names in a text document. I can’t tell you the number of times that we’ve been sent a list with a mis-spelled word on it. It will take the blame off of you if you have a hard copy of names. I did talk to one of the wayfinding planners. They all just learned on the job here and were trained by people that had been doing it a while. The more you do it the more you’ll get the hang of it.

As far as the maps go, there are a few different ways we do them. Not only style wise but how elaborate or basic they are can depend on what they are used for. Our fire evacuation plan ones are usually simple with a you are here arrow and exit routes marked. We usually use a thick stroke (typically 3pt line) for the outside of the building, a middle weight stroke (typically 2pt) for most interior walls, and then a thin stroke for minor walls and stairs (1pt, for instance bathroom walls would be thinner). I’ll PM you (I don’t really want to post them here) some example map files so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about (although some of the the stroke weights were not finalized yet). Most of them are in in-between stages of being finished. Some maps we do are for campus maps. They’re usually more detailed and are probably closer to what you are looking for. Sometimes we can get blueprints from an Architect and sometimes we just have to use Google Earth and piece it together (there’s actually a working example of that in one that I’m sending you).

Feel free to send me any others questions. I’m happy to help.

[Simon Strom]

Ok sorry Harry. It looks like I can’t send you a PM. I guess since I’m not a paid member? Can you PM me an email address? I’ll send you a zip file of the example maps. If not maybe another way to get the files to you?

[Alan Drury]

Layers in Draw are not hard and you should start by opening the object manager docker found under the window tab
Window-Dockers-objectmanager
In X5 you will see 2 icons at the bottom left of the docker
Left icon will give you another layer
right icon another master layer, anything on the master layer will appear on every page

Right click on a layer on the list and you have other options including rename and propeerties. Properties enables other options including layer colour, handy if you want to override the actual object colour.
The docker also displays icons to the left enabling viewing/locking/printability and by using icons at the top of the list you can see object proberties (Handy for tracking down a particular colour)

Objects on your page are simply dragged onto the layer on the list (object turns into an arrow to confirm layer selection)

The object manager is very useful and a docker I always have displayed.

Alan D

[Stephen Morriss]

To add to Alans comment, any object not on the paper (the box displaying the paper size) will be visible on all pages, if they are partially on the paper then they will only display on the page that they are on.
Pages are not the same as layers but I thought I’d point this out.

You can drag objects onto the layer you want them on in the object manager as well.
If you group objects they will all end up on the same layer (active layer I think) so be careful with grouping.

Steve

[Harry Cleary]

Brilliant advice folks. Finding my way on this job now.
It’s a design job not for cutting, how do layers work when it comes to cutting?
Can you select layers to cut as well?
Haven’t had a chance to experiment.

[Simon Strom]

Our plotters see a non-repro blue (basically all cyan) vector as the cutting path. I guess it can depend on the cutting software or a preference setting though. It’s possible that that specific layer needs to be named something specific to be identified as the cut layer.

[Alan Drury]

I think the name is more relevant to the cut colour name rather than than the layer name but your cutting software should have that info. Making a layer not printable normally stops it being exported for cutting as well
Alan D

[Martin Pearson]

Excuse my ignorance Harry but I don’t use Corel at all and have very little knowledge of layers in any program.

What would be the advantage of cutting from layers ? I know your not doing it with this job but you have obviously thought about it for other jobs.

[Harry Cleary]

quote Martin:

Excuse my ignorance Harry but I don’t use Corel at all and have very little knowledge of layers in any program.

What would be the advantage of cutting from layers ? I know your not doing it with this job but you have obviously thought about it for other jobs.

Haven’t thought much about it either Martin and you may be right. A lot of times I find that I am painting an element and putting text around it. For one job I might have 2 or 3 files and another separate file for a proof pdf with notes to client,
It just sounds handier to be doing it all from one file. Seems like a way to have one master file, just turn off the other layers and cut. May not work that way in reality though. 😀

[Glenn Sharp]

If I’m understanding you correctly Harry I think you could just have multiple pages to do what you want rather than layers

[Simon Strom]

Our plotter both prints and cuts. So after the artwork is printed on the vinyl, it can also be cut by the plotter without taking the roll off. We use it to cut out artwork that isn’t suited for just flat cast vinyl colors. For instance if the logo has any type of gradients or drops shadows and and has a non rectangular shape, then it would be suited for printing and then cutting. I think the main thing that would keep such a file from being used for display though is that the artwork needs a bleed around the cut line. An example would be the Volkswagen logo. It’s round and has a lot of gradients in it.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_7yB-eeGviiI/T … -Logo1.jpg

Back to what Harry was talking about though, I have received files from designers where they’ve put different revisions for a drawing on different layers and turned off the layers with the older revisions.

[Alan Drury]

I think you’re on the right line Harry. Stuff outside the page make sure is on the desktop layer which is set to non printing, you can label other labels with names/elements of your drawing and turn them off/make printable/viewable at will. Once mastered layers are very powerful.
Example – business card, everything is the same except name and number:
All elements except name/number go on master layer and therfore appear on all pages. Name/number on editable layer can be pasted on each page and edited as required. Page boarder on another layer and given an overide layer colour. Printout for customer approval, turn off or deletete for output with reg marks etc.
When making complicated logo locked finished items so you don’t select them by mistake. This is all one click stuff in the object manager docker – don’t get carried away though loads of layers with different properties can get confusing.
Alan D