How am I doin'?

[MarkJamesDesign]

I have been fooling around with the software even though my CC won't be here for a few more days, and would like to upload a design for critique. Please let me know how to get the file on the boards. Do I need to compress or zip the file, do I need to convert it from the original designer saved format, etc.

[rgant05]

Mark,
When you type your message in the window, scroll down a few lines till you see the portion that says ATTACH FILES and press the MANAGE ATTACHMENTS button, (note: you have to allow popups for this website) in the window you will see were you can browse and select to location where the file is, then select upload for the file, when through with the selection of files, close the window then press SUBMIT REPLY (or post... what ever it says) Some file types have a size limit and may need to be resized in order to be uploaded. Let me know if you have difficulty and I can confuse you some more.

[MarkJamesDesign]

Thanks for the quik reply RG. I give it a go. I got the tutorial from Jon Jantz for werkin with corel. I already know corel quite well, been using daily for about 4 years in sign biz but wanted to see how it was used with designer. I think this came out fairly good for my first attempt. Not sure how it will carve but looks good on screen. One note: JZ suggests copying file from cdr to photopaint to create trans background. As far as I can tell this is not necessary. This design was made in Corel Draw 12 and exported as a grayscale PNG with transparent color = white. Just make sure there is no pure white in the drawing. The Kahlua lettering was in the original orange and red coloring and came out nice in the grayscale. Anyway, all comments are welcome as my skin is quite thick. (If you met my wife I would'nt have to add that).

[rgant05]

Mark,

Did an excellent job of both posting AND with the sign design. Personally I like to cut my stuff out on the saw if it is simple like, to try to keep the hours off the machine, but if you have a complex cut it might be worth it. Looks like it will cut fine.

Roger

[MarkJamesDesign]

Good point Rg. Never thought about the hours. I think even for simple curve shapes like address signs and plaques I will cut about 50% depth outline, finish the cut on my bandsaw and flush trim the rest with my router table and a bearing bit. Thanks for the positive comments. Can't wait to put this baby to work.

[rgant05]

BTW....was on the phone and couldn't think when typing the last post, but you are probably right regarding the transparency of the background. When importing the file into Designer you can raise and lower the level of where the background will drop out, and there may be other ways of getting this transparency, but I don't know either of the programs well enough to find something that does as well. And if you DO have a solid white in the pattern anywhere that might create a problem also. I've got a lot to learn when it comes all of this, but I am learning from just about everyone here on the forum. A piece here and a piece there. LOL I now know what an intarsia is :) The 50% cut idea is good but I just did a picture frame that had a very irregular outline and after cutting it all on the bandsaw I would almost vote for cut path on anything but straight and smooth curved outlines.

Roger

[Jon Jantz]

Hey Mark, I thought about just doing it that way in the tutorial, but the problem is, a lot of times a design with have white in it for the highest points and then, like you said, when the design is saved with the transparency selected by color, it would have transparent holes in the design....

One way around that would be to add a different color background to the piece, like blue, then select it as the transparent color... save it as a PNG instead of GIF so you're not limited in the colors... you'd have to save it in RGB 24 bit color, but it doesn't really matter as long as you designed it all in grayscale anyway...

So I just thought the best way would be to use the Object Outline method for the transparency and that way avoid confusion.... the other reason I mentioned bringing it up in Photopaint is it's often good to put a little bit of a Gaussian blur on the design after working in Coreldraw, in order to smooth out those small steps.....

I've gotten so used to just copying, pasting into Photopaint, doing the couple of steps in there and then importing into Designer that the whole process only takes about 30 seconds anymore... LOL...

Thanks for the feedback!
Later, Jon