Problem reading Corel Draw 8 Files ?

[dporter]

I have a CD-ROM with a number of Corel Draw grahic files on it.

It was sent to a friend from one of his distributors and contains pictures of
the products he sells.

I have XARA-X installed on my computer, but when I try to open any of the files
I get an error message....

"This file may not be suitable for this filter - are you sure you wish to open this file?"

When I click the OPEN button I then get...

"Not a CorelDRAW CDR file !"

I opened one of the files with an editor and it shows me that the file format is
Corel Draw version 8.

Do I need Corel Draw 8 to open the files ?

Hope someone can help, thanks in advance.

Dave Porter

[dporter]

I have a CD-ROM with a number of Corel Draw grahic files on it.

It was sent to a friend from one of his distributors and contains pictures of
the products he sells.

I have XARA-X installed on my computer, but when I try to open any of the files
I get an error message....

"This file may not be suitable for this filter - are you sure you wish to open this file?"

When I click the OPEN button I then get...

"Not a CorelDRAW CDR file !"

I opened one of the files with an editor and it shows me that the file format is
Corel Draw version 8.

Do I need Corel Draw 8 to open the files ?

Hope someone can help, thanks in advance.

Dave Porter

[\"W\"]

Hi Dave,

First, i'm assuming these files are illustrations of product and not necessarily bitmaps, correct? Just want to make sure. Of course, if they're CDR files, they should contain vector info (drawings, that is). I say this because you used the term "pictures", that's all.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Do I need Corel Draw 8 to open the files ? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Short answer, YES. Long answer:

You must re-open these files in Draw 8 or whatever version, and export as CMX-5 or CMX 7/8 (corel presentation exchange). This format was developed so that draw users of different versions can "exchange" files with each other. I use cmx when I know I'm working with Xara and CorelDraw and for the most part, the interpretation is accurate. However, if these drawings are using tools and effects which are only native to Draw, they may not export correctly or in some cases, the objects attributes will be rasterised (converted to bitmap) in order to fulfill proper export.

The reason why Xara can import CMX is because Xara and Corel were married at one point and was natural to implement the filter. So,.. as the story goes, Corel locked Xara in the basement for years so no one else can see her grace and beauty. Then one day, Xara said, "I'm not gonna take this @#!& anymore", and crawled out the window and flew into the sunset, and everyone lived happily everafter :-)

Anyway ... hope this helped you, Dave.

Wayne

[roman]

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[traceyp]

Wayne

Unless the help file is wrong, XaraX can only import CMX 5 or 6; no mention is made of version 7 or 8. I must admit that I wasn't really sure of what CMX format was or what was intended for. However, I DO know that Corel do NOT release details of their file formats, at least not CDR, and probably most of the others, so they can be supported by other packages. It really is a case that if you create your masterpiece in CorelDraw, you export it in some other format such as WMF that can be read by most other packages.

Incidentally, it seems to me that it was with some reluctance that Corel file formats were permitted to be supported even in CorelXara; they weren't exactly quick off the blocks with the support. It took a long time and quite a lot of pressure from CorelXara users before Corel permitted their formats to be supported. It was one of the moans we (my partner and I) had at the first release of CorelXara (was it 1.1 or 1.2?) and I don't think it was until CorelXara 2 that various Corel file formats were seriously supported. You would think it would be the natural progression to include support for Corel formats but sadly it wasn't and even when they did allow the support to be included, only early formats such as CDR 5 and CMX 5/6 are supported; I guess you don't see too many of them these days.

Tracey

[\"W\"]

I meant 6/7, not 7/8. My mistake.

Sure, I may not know the whole story as it is or was, verbatim and blow by blow. I thought I had the gist of it though.