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kendavis
01-15-2007, 03:11 PM
I've had my Carvewright since last March but I had a problem with it at first. I contacted the Carvewright people and they had me send it back. They fixed it promptly and sent it back within a couple of weeks. Since I got it back I've had a lot of other stuff going on and I was a little apprehensive about trying it again.
My wife told me she was going down to visit her parents in Florida and that it would sure be nice to make them a sign with their name on it for the house.
So I decided it was time to bite the bullet. I created a sign in the Carvewright software and tried it on a piece of MDF. It came out pretty well but the font(which was rastered) was very rough around the edges. I decided to do the whole thing in Corel and then just import the jpg. That worked much better. I did the final carving using red oak. I've since read that red oak is not the best choice. It came out pretty well. The "The" at the top is pretty small and chipped a little because of how thin some of the letters were.
The outline is North Carolina with a small star where Asheville would be.
It will be painted before installing.

Ken

BobHill
01-15-2007, 03:31 PM
Nice looking sign, Ken.

Bob

David M.
01-15-2007, 07:28 PM
I like your sign, you should do more. Did you hand cut the outside shape or was the created in the design program?

BobHill
01-15-2007, 07:34 PM
David,

If you have CorelDraw the outline of all states (and far, far more) is included in it's vector clipart. Use that, then convert it to a JPEG, import the JPEG and use OUTLINE PATTERN. Do a COPY of that path and shrink is a take inside the original and you have the outline bordered. Now delete the raster JPEG and add text to inside. Select the outside path and CUT PATH, Hide Cutout and you've got your pattern.

But since I'm sure you know that, David, please allow the above to be for those wondering how to do it.

Bob

David M.
01-15-2007, 07:38 PM
Thanks Bob I know how to do it, I was just wondering if he used the cut feature or if he cut it after the fact with a band saw or other such tool.

kendavis
01-15-2007, 07:46 PM
Well, that was the way I tried to do it at first. I couldn't get the JPG to import only in the shape of the state though. It would only come in as a rectangle. I even tried making the background transparent. I ended up cutting it out with the bandsaw. I would like to know how to make it work since now others want their states done.
I did the text in corel also. I tried to do the text in Carvewright but it came out badly. Might have been the font but they wanted something with a script look to it.

Ken

BobHill
01-16-2007, 08:17 AM
Ken,

If you do the text in Corel, but it won't work well using Text option in Designer you must be doing something wrong, as both are raster carved (unless you choose outline or center line text option for Designer Text). Did you use the same font for both ways of writing text?

If you follow the directions I posted in my previous post that only works for the vector path carving.

So if you design your sign in Corel entirely and wish to use the method to carve, I'd make two Corel files: one for the text which you can import and center it. Then the second can be the state outline and you can center it.

You'll have two rasters images, so choose the state outline one to select and OUTLINE PATTERN. This will establish the state outline. Delete the state outline raster (not the vector path you just made, and remember raster images and the vector paths will ALWAYS have a bounding box rectangle, as that's the nature of the beast).

While the vector path is selected, now do a Control C to copy it. It'll make a copy of the path, but it'll automatically offset it so you can see the original (dashed lines in black and no rectangle) and the new path (white with a white rectangle). Overlay the new path over the dashed lines of the original and grab a corrner and reduce a tad, then grab the diagonal corner and reduce the same tad and you should have your border.

Assign CUT PATH to the outside path and CARVE REGION to the inside path to a depth you with the base of your text to be. Now carve your raster text (or once again try Designer's text tool to apply text with the same font. It should have the same results).

Bob

Aaron B
01-16-2007, 10:24 AM
Bob, does using Corel allow you to let the machine carve better by using rastor vs vector or anything like that? Not sure the real differences but I thought I would ask anyway.

kendavis
01-16-2007, 10:49 AM
Well Bob, they both raster the fonts but it doesn't mean that they handle the fonts the same way. It was the same font on both pieces. Same material. The font done in Carvewright wasn't nearly as smooth. Not sure what I could have done wrong. Maybe I hit the keyboard harder in Corel. :lol:

I'm at work right now so I can't try your suggestion about the OUTLINE PATTERN. If it comes in with a rectangle around it I'm not sure how I would get it to just outline the state shape and not the rectangle. It would be different if I could import a vector image but we are limited to raster images. But I will try this as soon as I can. It would make it easier.

BobHill
01-16-2007, 11:00 AM
Aaron,

For those of us who are familiar and experienced with 2D vector programs such as CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, Xara Xtreme, Macromedia Freehand, etc. it's a lot faster and somewhat easier to create 2D drawings than Designer is. But, since neighter Designer nor the CW can directly take these vector files in as vector, they have to be converted into one of the raster image files that the CW will accept (JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, MNG (???) OR XPM)

XPM (X Bitmap format) is a a French origin format and is mostly adaptable for icon sized images in color. MNG (Multiple Networks Graphics) is unknown to me and I really don't know what software creates either XPM or MNG.

In most cases, however, it's best to use a full raster software program such as Adobe PhotoShop or Adobe PhotoShop Elements to make the final raster image, as it's more reliable than coming directly from a JPEG, for instance created by CorelDraw. I Export the vector image from CorelDraw into a PSD or TIFF, then open those in PhotoShop and create my JPEG (usual raster image to import, but not required to be).

Bob

Aaron B
01-16-2007, 11:08 AM
So what you are saying is that you would need Corel to draw what you want then use Adobe Photoshop to make it a raster and use that in the CW software, correct? Just seeing what I might want to purchase.

Thanks for the input.

BobHill
01-16-2007, 11:50 AM
Aaron,

If you are just starting out with graphics software, then I might suggest Starting with something like Xara Xtreme www.xara.com .

Not that it's THE best perhaps, but because of the price. Since it's not as well known, it's not as costly as CorelDraw www.coreldraw.com which for me is probably the best, although Adobe Illustrator is more popular with professional illustrators (perhaps due to it's name recognition).

With Xara you do get a good amount of raster ability although it's primarily a vector graphics software.

For those who are heavily into Corel, I know it also has some raster ability and that it's full blown raster program CorelPaint is almost as high as Adobe PhtotoShop, but the cost factor holds me back from recommending it or full PhotoShop to someone new to high end graphics. Also for "our" purposes with the CarveWright, Adobe PhotoShop Elements (a tad under $100) is as good as full Adobe PhotoShop or CorelPaint.

Cost of first time buyer of Xara Xtreme is $89 US (you get CD, plus PDF manual that's not available to the $79 price) Check out the OnLine demo movies for it. Downloadable Demo version available .. with timebomb.

Cost of first time buyer of CorelDraw (actually Corel suite X3) is $379 US It's actually made in Canada. And if you can afford this one, it's the way to go in my estimation, but like all new high end programs, it does have a learning curve. Full printed manual is included. Downloadable Demo available ... with timebomb.

Cost of first time buyer of Adobe Creative Suite 2 Standard (includes Illustrator, PhotoShop, InDesign) is $899 US

Illustrator CS 2 only for first time buyer is $499 US
PhotoShop CS 2 only for first time buyer is $ 649 US

PhotoShop Elements 5.0 (only for Windows) only for first time buyer is $ 99.99

Everything above is well worth the money if you have it and wish the very best in graphics (although there are additional ones I can name too <g>)

Bob

Aaron B
01-16-2007, 12:08 PM
Thanks for all the info, I will look into some of those. I was just trying to make sure I needed two programs to make it work the best.

One to draw such as xara, corel
one to make better raster, which would be Adobe photoshop.

Jon Jantz
01-16-2007, 02:06 PM
A vote for CorelDraw here as well. The Corel Suite comes with Photopaint which for most people is just as capable as Photoshop.

CorelDraw has a some built-in bitmap utilities, and you can access Photopaint from within CorelDraw as well. I most often save my bitmaps in the .gif format with a transparent background which will eliminate the feathered box around the image.

I'm almost done with a tutorial that shows how to use Coreldraw to digitize a logo, and then add beveled effects to it... as well as then using Photopaint to save it and bring it into Designer. I'll get it to some of you to check out and let me know what you think as soon as I'm done... I'll probably have it done this evening.

Aaron B
01-16-2007, 02:26 PM
A vote for CorelDraw here as well. The Corel Suite comes with Photopaint which for most people is just as capable as Photoshop.

CorelDraw has a some built-in bitmap utilities, and you can access Photopaint from within CorelDraw as well. I most often save my bitmaps in the .gif format with a transparent background which will eliminate the feathered box around the image.

I'm almost done with a tutorial that shows how to use Coreldraw to digitize a logo, and then add beveled effects to it... as well as then using Photopaint to save it and bring it into Designer. I'll get it to some of you to check out and let me know what you think as soon as I'm done... I'll probably have it done this evening.

Awesome that would be great. My help me in deciding which way to go. Since I don't have Corel I just see what other people saying about drawing in it then converting it to CW software and it looks good and things come out real nice.

BobHill
01-16-2007, 04:34 PM
For those who don't have the bucks for CorelDraw Suite (that's the only way it comes), don't downgrade the options in Xara Xtreme. It's really not all that different from CorelDraw and it has MORE raster options than Draw does for far far less money.

Try out the demo of each and see what you think. Just because it doesn't have the name, don't pass over it. Remember that Corel, back when, bought up the U.S. license to Xara to lessen the competition, so anyone in the US had to go through them to buy it.

Now, of course Corel is owned by a holding company and Xara is on it's own operating out of the UK. It's a really powerful program. Not a lightweight, for sure. www.xara.com

Bob

DustMe
01-16-2007, 05:01 PM
There is another option available that I recently found out about called the Gimp 2.2.

It is a free, open source program that is real similiar to Photo Shop.

I have not used it much but what I have done in it has worked very well.

You can get all of the info at www.gimp.org

Steve

kendavis
01-16-2007, 06:25 PM
Bob,
I tried your method when I got home. I did see how to cut out the shape. That looked fairly easy. I would have to bring in 2 different files from Corel though. Using the contour command in Corel I could make the 1 inch border all the way around and then bring that in as a separate jpg.
Your method of making the border doesn't work. Making a copy and then dragging 2 opposing corners in (or out) works fine with a square or rectangle, or even a circle I guess, but it doesn't work on complex curves.
I've attached a file to let you try it on.
It would be very handy to have the Contour command in the software(hint hint).

Ken

Dan-Woodman
01-16-2007, 08:53 PM
Bob
Does xara have the line drawings of the states like corel.
I had a corel that came with an old computer . i am guessing it was a very small package . But I got a lot of use out of the line drawings.

BobHill
01-17-2007, 02:24 AM
Dan,

I haven't received my CD yet for Xara Xtreme Pro, but do have the Xara X1 CD (earlier version of Xtreme) and it has 3,890 clipart files sort of in the same catagories as Corel (but different art), except, of course, no US states outlines (it's a UK product). However, Xara WILL accept just about all vector file formats (except mpc from Designer), such as those Clipart files from Corel in either .CDR, .CMX, or Adobe's .AI or EPS formats. It'll also take all Freehand and AutoCad files.

I have all the clipart from CorelDraw back to version 3 as well as all their annual contest CD's and coffee table books and those will all open in Xara as well.

Bob

kendavis
01-17-2007, 05:50 AM
You can get free vectors of all the states here - http://digital-vector-maps.com/catalog-us-state-maps.aspx

Aaron B
01-17-2007, 07:29 PM
Dan,

I haven't received my CD yet for Xara Xtreme Pro, but do have the Xara X1 CD (earlier version of Xtreme) and it has 3,890 clipart files sort of in the same catagories as Corel (but different art), except, of course, no US states outlines (it's a UK product). However, Xara WILL accept just about all vector file formats (except mpc from Designer), such as those Clipart files from Corel in either .CDR, .CMX, or Adobe's .AI or EPS formats. It'll also take all Freehand and AutoCad files.

I have all the clipart from CorelDraw back to version 3 as well as all their annual contest CD's and coffee table books and those will all open in Xara as well.

Bob

Bob, I know you would go with Corel first, what about between Xara Xtreme and Xtreme Pro? At least for using for the Carvewright only, is the Pro worth the extra $120. I didn't know if the Pro had better vector/raster components or if the things that come with the X Pro had nothing to do with that. thanks

BobHill
01-17-2007, 09:41 PM
Aaron,

Because I use graphics for more than designing things for the CarveWright, I go with the more powerful software, so that's why I went for Xara Xtreme Pro and if you checked it out, I also have Xara 3D which is also fantastic for what it does,. But if you essentially need xara for use to design for the CarveWright and not much need of it otherwise, I'd recommend going with just Xara Xtreme. You don't need multipage option, or PSD option (to send a vector to PhotoShop) and most of the rest of Pro has to do with WEB creation graphics. $79 vs $ 199 (although I'd go with Xtreme at $89 to get the CD manual) is a lot lighter on your wallet and will do you just fine. You also will get the extensive Clipart Gallery, which is similar to that which comes with CorelDraw.

Bob

nodwell
01-18-2007, 03:58 AM
One of the IT girls at work sent me this like yesterday

Great price on Coreldraw

http://www.bestdigitalsoftware.com/product_details.php?product=6813&cat=5

Don

Aaron B
01-18-2007, 05:58 AM
One of the IT girls at work sent me this like yesterday

Great price on Coreldraw

http://www.bestdigitalsoftware.com/product_details.php?product=6813&cat=5

Don

How in the world can they do that?

Rick Devine
01-18-2007, 07:21 AM
I took a look at the site and what stood out to me in the TERMS area:

Basic Conditions of Purchasing at Discounter Online online store
- You are informed that the software is in English language only unless noted differently on the site or by the Support representative;
- You will thoroughly follow the downloading and installation instructions on your account;
- You cannot register the software with the manufacturer and updates are available not for all the products;
- You do not receive printed license documentation;
- You do not receive a copy of the software on a disk.

Sounds shady and pirated. I wouldn't use this site for downloads if I couldn't register or get updates and there was no license.

Looks like it may be an offshoot site of the other download site. I notice many of these places have several websites under different names but they all are owned by the same people. This one is an offshoot of www.bestdigitalsoftware.com.
I personally would avoid this site completely.

BobHill
01-18-2007, 08:06 AM
Aaron,

Having worked with Adobe for some years, I checked into that site for their prices. THERE IS NO WAY THIS IS A LEGIT SITE and either it's a scam on YOU or the software company. Note that one of the logos that are highlighted is MacroMedia, which is no more. MacroMedia products now all belong to Adobe and there is no MacroMedia advertising or sales, nor do they license anyone to do so with that name.

I wouldn't touch any of those products with a ten foot pole, or your money. If it looks and smells crooked, I'd go with my nose and eyes over greed. Further investigation probably will point to the URL as a "foreign" market with not a clean background. Turn it into the BSA (business software association) as I have just done. Remember that it's the buyer as well as the seller who is legally responsable in such cases and it's against US federal law to do either.

Bob Hill
Tampa Florida