thanks mike but both of you are confused on my issue
I said I occassionally import in such as the splash for like an accent graphic
then i will go back to xara and add my vector lettering and such, i by no means design signs in artrage
i only use it for added effects like airbrushing, because with one click you can turn a png into a frisket
that you can use over the graphic you import in, and airbrush over the frisket, without stepping out of the boundaries.
and as far as using illustrator for bevels, yes it's vector, but the results are not good.
there is nothing that even comes close to the quality of the bevels in Xara.