Open Scanned oject to Coreldraw12

[smilerpete]

LS6090
Hi
Could anybody please help regarding how to unlock a scanned object once it is in coreldraw 12. I select the pick tool but I am unable to just highlight the object, I have to highlight the whole page as well. Then when I press ungroup or ungroup all, hundreds of nodes appear, but I still cannot isolate the object. Then afterwards coreldraw sends out a message saying "coreldraw is not responding" whereby it trys to rectify the problem but says everything is okay. I have previously been able to edit objects once scanned but now cannot. Previous objects which are saved I can still edit. I think I may have pressed something I should,nt have Confused! Thank you Pete

[Signchap]

I'm confused. You say a scanned object - therefore it's a bitmap? But then you say nodes are appearing which means it has been vectorised. The alternative to ungroup for a vector is the 'break apart' option. CTRL K in the arrange menu.

[smilerpete]

Hi signchap

Thanks for your reply.
Have pressed ctrl k and it worked once but then stopped working again, I pressed convert to bitmap that seemed to work once but now the same message keeps appearing "coreldraw is not responding". I took coreldraw off yesterday then reloaded it thinking its a corrupt programme but everything else seems to be working fine. If possible could you give me a run down from scanning to transfering to laser just in case I have missed something as I am new at this. Thank you Pete.

[Signchap]

I'm still a bit confused. You scan your item and import it (or it scans straight in) to Coreldraw. So you have a bitmap on the screen. You can't select individual parts of a bitmap in Coreldraw without tracing it first, so it becomes a collection of vectors. If Coreldraw is repeatedly crashing the only thing I can think of is that the scan is a very large file and your computer is struggling wth it.
I can't help on the laser part, as I am in the process of buying my first one.

[Matrix]

Hi Signchap,
Am I right in thinking that you are using the CorelTrace program to convert a scanned bitmap into vector artwork, ready for import into CoreDraw?

If so, then possibly the CorelTrace settings are the cause of the problem. If you use the quick 'Outline' option (icon of a pencil), the program tries to optimise the conversion using default settings. I have often found that these are hopeless (I would use stronger language were this not a public forum!). It often results in vectors that follow the outline of individual pixels - thus creating huge vectors with lots of zig-zag edges (aliasing). It will also pick up the tiniest of colour changes in your original scan - creating hundreds of small parts for each colour/shade found in the original.
The resulting file size is most likely what is slowing Corel to a crawl. (the message 'not responding' is often misleading - it means that the program is not reacting to commands from Windows, often just because it is too busy doing calculations to respond).

Better results can be obtained using the 'Advanced outline' tool (pencil with a plus sign) - this gives you control over the amount of smoothing, and the number of colours that the bitmap is divided into (using the controls at the top of the screen). The preview window will show you the effects of your changes as you fine tune the conversion - so you can tweak until you find a happy medium between detail and the number of parts/nodes. The setting here are remembered next time you use CorelTrace . Could be that you (or another user) previously had found some useful settings, but they have been restored to defaults for some reason - explaining the sudden unreliability of the conversion.

When imported into CorelDraw, the vector file comes in as one big grouped object - this normally includes a white 'background' object, which explains the problem of 'selecting the whole page'. Ungrouping once should break the group into the individual coloured parts - you can then delete the white background, and then possibly use the 'Weld' option to combine the remaining parts into a single object.

Hope that is some help,
Steve.

[Signchap]

I think you are probably right. I was just trying to ascertain the exact problem the OP was having. I try to avoid autotrace whenever possible as it creates too many potentially invisible nodes/shapes for my liking. I prefer hand vectorising, but then I'm really picky.

[Matrix]

I prefer hand vectorising, but then I'm really picky.

I quite agree. With a graphics tablet and a bit of practice, I find drawing a bezier curve can be as fast as trying to tidy up a scrappy autotrace - and almost always leads to a neater file for cutting.

[Spooky]

I agree guys, raster to vector programs do the job just not very well. The file sizes tend to be huge due to the number of linked lines rather than smooth curves (lets not go near splines, they cause 80% of my day job problems)

As a base line they are fine so long as you edit the Vector output in a decent cad program afterwards

best wishes

Dave