Contour cut in Corel 11 ?

[SCOTTD]

I have had this happen to me several times now and I hope someone can help.

I build a design in corel consisting of 2 or 3 shapes with outlines and some text, now i want to make a contour cut line. I copy the design weld it and try to give it a contour cut line only to get these weird looking spikes and sevearl cut lines . has anyone had this happen and is there a way to fix it? the past 2 jobs that I had this happen I had to hand cut the job what a pain in the butt!

 

[ChiknNutz]

It's usually caused by a few stray nodes causing you grief. You need to zoom in tight on the trouble areas and cleanup those nodes.

 

[OldPaint]

did you try a demo of SIGN TOOLS? i had this same problem after i deleted it......had to wipe h/d and rebuilt and reinstall corel to fix it

 

[SCOTTD]

Sign Tools?

I take it this is a stand alone program? I have flexi but never installed it i have been sucessful up till now by using Corel, CS2 & Illustrator. I'm really hoping I don't have to learn a new program. But If I have to i can.

 

[GAC05]

I think Chris is steering you in the right direction. Welding text or other complex shapes can leave little messy areas of stacked nodes that don't show until you try to contour the object.
One thing to try is to thicken up the outline and see if you see the same problems start to show.
If they do, you have to go into wireframe and zoom in close to see what is causing the problem and delete (or weld) those points that are stacked twisted or not connected.

If updating Draw is an option there are better tools in Draw X3 to help with issues like these.
X3 contour tool does a better job without adding those hundreds of points connecting little line segments in the contour lines.
Stacked nodes (or nodes to close to display at the current zoom level) show up with little flags sticking out that allow you to select them without grabbing the one next to it.
It also has a tool to auto-outline two or more selected objects without having to weld them - does just the outline (no inner islands) nice and clean.
It has a fillet/chamfer tool that makes it easy to add micro fillets to make cutting and weeding easier.
Bitmap tracing seems better in X3 too.
The demo might be worth a look instead of gearing up to learn another program.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[Checkers]

Yep, Chris and Wayne are on the right track. You have some errant nodes that are causing problems. If you delete these nodes before you apply the countour it will help.
When possible, I prefer to use the outline option and outline with rounded corners, this will help reduce the problem too. I beleive its also found by pressing the F12 key.

Checkers

 

[SCOTTD]

Thanks for the info Guys i'll try it !! np

isjj