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whats the best way to add a cuttable outline to text?
Hi,
A question for the corel experts among us, whats the best way to add a cuttable outline to text, graphics etc?Let me elaborate a little, I use corel 8 and export to signlab shortcut 4.95 for cutting. If a job requires text with a contrasting outline i use the contour function in corel to produce the outline to the required width, then separate it from the original text. This gives me the outline i want but when viewed in wireframe mode it seems to be "overloaded" with nodes, this gives me a problem when exporting to signlab which only seems to be able to recognise so much of the graphic leaving parts of the contour path missing!
My usual work around for this is to use the auto reduce function in corel to reduce the number of nodes. This works fine but i find it very time consuming as it seems "chop" some curves to straight paths if i select too large an area to auto reduce at a time, causing me to have to then manipulate the outline back to the required contour.
Am I missing something obvious here, is there a much easier way to do this or can i set up corel to contour with less nodes?Thanks for taking the time to read this long winded explanation/plea for help
Paul
(who’s just spent the last hour editing out excess nodes!!) 😮 -
10 Replies
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Oops! didn’t read it properly.
But when you outline it does end up with thousands of nodes, it is a pain.
I do the same as you and auto reduce, but in sections; like a quarter of an O for instance, that way you don’t distort the letter.hope that makes sense
Simon -
I use Corel 9 and do exactly the same. i.e. contour , seperate, export but don’t get the problem with nodes? Must be a Signlab thing?
You can cut direct from Corel Draw although as yet I haven’t set my machine up for it. If it’s a Roland they supply drivers that allow this function.
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Hiya
Im not sure whether signlab 5 works the same as 4.95 but I just copy from Corel , paste to signlab and use the transform/outline to outline in signlab – corel does wierd things , often all those nodes you see are straight line segments not even curves!!!!!! -
Hi paul,
Try converting the text to curves then adding outline, then breaking apart and it should be fine just delete the inner text.Chris 😀
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Thanks for your suggestions guys, it seems that the 1000’s of nodes is just a “feature” of a corel contour. I hoped that maybe there was a setting within corel which I had missed that could tone this down a bit.
The problem with importing into signlab seems to be a shortcoming of signlab 4.95 as other people are just importing straight into newer versions with no problems, oh well it is getting a bit long in the tooth now i suppose so i’l just have to live with it for the moment. I only have what i believe is the most basic version so the ability to edit and add outlines within signlab is not available, it really only allows me to size, position and cut the graphics, all other work has to be done within corel first.Thanks again for your help
Paul(looking forward to lots more auto reducing 🙄 )
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Paul,
I use a really cheapo package called Signscript supplied with my cutter. Very basic but prety much problem free.
Might be worth seeing if it’s still available?
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there is an easy & quick way with corel 10, not sure if it is 8 though.
1: make your contour and seperate
2: select a complete part with the node selection tool
3: click on select all nodes (node edit toolbar)
4: click on the node smoothness button (node edit toolbar again) a slider will appear
5: drag the slider up just a little (around 7 seems to work well, but you’ll have to experiment a bit) and let go.
6: Job done ! -
Paul,
I realise this post dosn’t give you a solution, but until you get one,
would it not be quicker for you to export your text from Corel in ‘chunks’ then manipulate them in Signlab Shortcut rather than node editing every letter in Corel.Have you tried all the export filters, DXF for example. (?)
Regards
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my above post gives a solution, although as far as I know you cannot change the default settings for Corel, but it saves me hours of node editing.
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Hi
I’ve not had much spare time to try all the suggestions, i can’t find a “node smoothness” slider in corel 8 so i guess thats just in the later versions.
Adding and manipulating the outline in signlab is a no go as the basic shortcut version i have doesn’t allow any form of editing, it’s just a size and cut program apparently.
But I do seem to have found a way out of my problem, it seems that if i dont actually separate the contour from the main graphic, I can then export without any problems 😕
To be honest the only reason i usually separate, is to give the outline the correct colour in corel, just to see what the finished graphic will look like. So maybe in the future i’l just make two versions one for the visual and one (unseparated) to export.Cheers for the help guys
Paul(Glued to the versacamm thread far tighter than thier inks seem to!!)
😆
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