Corel X5 contour problem

[ChaseO]

Hey guys, I have had this problem in the past, don't remember the fix, and tried a search with no avail. All of the sudden, my contour corners are chopped off instead of squared off, liked I've gone in a used the chamfer tool or something. I think to get around it in the past, I have filleted the corners to .001 and then proceeded with the contour, but I remember fixing this problem before and would like to do it again if I could.

Thanks

 

[signguyms]

There should be a place to select which type of corner you want in the contour pop-out window. This is X6 in the picture but X5 should have it also.

 

[Shadowglen]

I am running 15 but my contour does not have that. just center, inside, outside, offset and steps. may be a setting issue in my preferences though.

 

[Joe Diaz]

There should be a place to select which type of corner you want in the contour pop-out window. This is X6 in the picture but X5 should have it also.

I'm pretty sure X5 doesn't have that feature, that was new to x6 if I remember right. The way you would handle that in the past is to pre-filllet you shapes before you add the contour.

 

[J Hill Designs]

Im not finding any contour options in X5 either. I have always hated contouring in coreldraw...it really gets wonky at times...I always export to omega and do contouring there - much better IMO

 

[Joe Diaz]

Hey guys, I have had this problem in the past, don't remember the fix, and tried a search with no avail. All of the sudden, my contour corners are chopped off instead of squared off, liked I've gone in a used the chamfer tool or something. I think to get around it in the past, I have filleted the corners to .001 and then proceeded with the contour, but I remember fixing this problem before and would like to do it again if I could.

Thanks

Extremely sharp angles or points will auto square off to avoid having points that are several feet off in whatever direction. As you mentioned pre-filleting you shapes before you add a contour should do the trick. If every corner is squared off like that (or round/filleted when you don't want them to be) some times you can take your shape, apply an internal contour offset just enough to get you back to your sharp points, then an external contour of the same measurement will kind of get you back to the right shape. THEN you add the contour effect you want.

Upgrading to X6 or X7 has a bunch of time saving features for adding contour effects. If you prefer outlines to contours X7 has some nice new outline tools.

 

[ChaseO]

Thanks for the replies. I do have X6 on another computer, but I don't understand why it changes from time to time. And I'm not talking extremely sharp point either, even a 90 degree point will do it. Attached is a picture of some unit numbers I'm working on right now. The one on the left is new, the one on the right is one I did a few months ago. I know there are work arounds, but I'm trying to get it back to where it once was (again). And I know that I haven't changed any preferences or settings on this particular computer in some time.

 

[ChaseO]

Rebooted my computer and it works fine. I hate computers.

 

[Joe Diaz]

It shouldn't be doing that, It doesn't for me anyway. Have you zoomed in real close and inspected the text with your shape tool to see if there are any extra nodes. Perhaps the corners are like that for that font/text but so small that you cannot see it unless zoomed in. If that's the case deleting those extra nodes manually would do the trick or sometimes you use your shape tool and "select all nodes" then select "reduce nodes".

What font is that? Is it just Arial?

 

[Joe Diaz]

Rebooted my computer and it works fine. I hate computers.

LOL man that's weird.

 

[Shadowglen]

just yesterday with x5 I was contouring a serpentine font it was T-1105 2 contours at .08 to the outside. I do 2 separate contours because selecting 2 steps sometimes does strange things with a fill. Anyway the first contour goes fine so I uncombine and run another .08 to the outside and it contours all but the 5 on the end. I convert the 5 to curves and it works?

 

[ChaseO]

What font is that? Is it just Arial?

Yes sir.

just yesterday with x5 I was contouring a serpentine font it was T-1105 2 contours at .08 to the outside. I do 2 separate contours because selecting 2 steps sometimes does strange things with a fill. Anyway the first contour goes fine so I uncombine and run another .08 to the outside and it contours all but the 5 on the end. I convert the 5 to curves and it works?

I'm glad it worked for you to convert to curves and nothing else. I have to convert to curves and find problems with nodes a lot to achieve the contour I want. There can be one node with the curve bent the wrong way and prevent a contour from working at all.