CorelDRAW X5 Trace and Fill

[marco73]

Hi all

I am new to this forum and as new to corelDRAW X5.
I am an engraver by trade.
I have always relied on our graphic designers to do all the art work such as creating graphics with infills such as company logos and bespoke text.
I now find myself with a new employer who is a hand engraver and very old school. We have a computerised engraving machine with a high demand for logos. I have been able to trace some logos by using the trace but on other logos I find that the lines aren't followed accurately. This has led me to using the freehand tool which, although accurate, is very time consuming. I am looking for some advice and pointers on how I can import a graphic file then accurately trace it and at times, be able to infill the logo so as to create a path for the engraving machine.

Any advice and help much appreciated

Thanks

[Albacore]

Using the tracing engine in Corel is highly dependant on the quality of the object you are trying to trace. If a bitmap comes to you from the web then the DPI is going to be from 72 to 90 and if the logo is small then it will not trace but if your file has a DPI of 300 and above then it will trace reasonably well. Best thing to do is not to trace but use the Polyline Tool on a layer above your bitmap with the bitmap locked in that layer. Carry on just as you are doing at the moment but not with the Freehand Tool as it produces many nodes which are harder to edit so use the Polyline tool roughly over the bitmap and then use the Shape Editor to push and pull the nodes over the logo accurately. It is all down to practice so keep at it and it will come and I would suggest to do a few tutorials on the subject of logos: https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourc...w=1199&bih=645