Questions about Vectors and Tracing etc.

[cocoon]

Hello all,

I'm new to Xara and just installed the trial yesterday. I usually do my graphics with CorelDraw or Photoshop. So far I'm amazed of thing you can do with it - but I'm a little confused about the "Vector based thing"

The main software I work with, is an embroidery software that is vector based. When I draw e.g. a circle in Corel, I just select the circle and cut & paste it from Corel into my software and I have the circle as an vector object there. This apparently does not work with Xara I have the sandglass for a moment but nothing is inserted. Does anyone know why this could be ?

Yesterday I tried to do a graphic with a text in 3D view. So I typed the text and used the extrusion tool - looked great, but my goal was to just have the outlines of the text itself and the extrusion (like I would need for a cutter). So my thought was just to convert everything into shapes, set the fill to transparent and have the thin outlines but it didn't work that way. Always only had extrusion, clipped photos etc. never got a hold of the vector objects itself - what did I do wrong ?

I used the search function here, and found a couple threads and saw often that you "hand trace" objects - is it that I have do in this case ? How do you actually do those "hand traces" - with the freehand tool ?

Sorry for this long thread - but I'm pretty about those things

Greets, Andrea

[tonylondon]

This is an interesting question!

You can certainly copy and paste Xara shapes into some programs - such as Illustrator. It would be interesting to know whether you can paste shapes from Xara into Corel Draw?

It this isn't possible you may be able to export the shape in a different file format and import it into your embroidery program.

When you use the extrude tool, the extrusion Xara creates is not a vector.

You can take an extrusion and create an outline by changing the view quality (the slider to the left of the magnet)

Tony

[mightyfun]

Andrea,

What embroidery software are you using? It might have a note about what kind of applications it accepts. You might be able to use that to get a good idea of what kind of file you need to convert your images into... Just and idea.


Jen

[cocoon]

Thank you very much for your answer, Tony

When I paste a Xara shape into Corel, then it is inserted as a OLE Document Object and not as an vector. I tried to export it in several formats my software supports e.g. .emf and .wmf - but then its inserted as a bitmap

Found a workaround now, when I export it from Xara as .ai then import it in Corel I get a hand on the vectors which I can paste This way it also worked with your tip regarding the view quality

Andrea

[cocoon]

Andrea,

What embroidery software are you using? It might have a note about what kind of applications it accepts. You might be able to use that to get a good idea of what kind of file you need to convert your images into... Just and idea.


Jen

Hi Jen,

I use Wilcom ES as embroidery software and it interacts with Corel - I can insert different file types of images, but they are inserted as bitmaps.

Andrea

[gwpriester]

Welcome to the Xtreme Conference Andrea.

You can also export as PDF which supports more of Xtreme's features than the *.ai filter.

Gary

[tonylondon]

Thank you very much for your answer, Tony

When I paste a Xara shape into Corel, then it is inserted as a OLE Document Object and not as an vector. I tried to export it in several formats my software supports e.g. .emf and .wmf - but then its inserted as a bitmap

Found a workaround now, when I export it from Xara as .ai then import it in Corel I get a hand on the vectors which I can paste This way it also worked with your tip regarding the view quality

Andrea

I'm glad you found a work around, Andea. Purely out of interest, there was a portable corel format called CMX. That ought to work the same way!
Best wishes
Tony