Received an 18 MB .cgm file with a request to try and reduce file size. Opened file with Corel Draw X5 and discovered file had 32k+ objects - .cgm likely created from dwg/pdf export from CAD software. Spent some time working with the original .dwg and new .cdr to reduce number of objects (performed lots of "welds"). Exported to .cgm, file size now down to 2.5 MB. This .cgm file opens with Corel just fine (albeit slowly).
Customer had complained about other files being in excess of 1 MB, so continued to try and reduce the file size further. Eventually got a .cgm output from Corel that was 500 KB in size. This .cgm won't open with Corel - get an "Unknown error occurred". I tried all different combinations of .cgm export options, and all return same error when trying to open the file.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!
I am using Corel Draw X5 v15.2.0.686, on Windows 7.
To do anything useful with this, you would need to post the final "non-exportable" CDR file somewhere so we could check it to find the reason.
But probably not a lot of point in doing that with X5 unless X7 also cannot export that file. Corel isn't going to fix X5 problems now.
More useful would be to trace the creation path and try to find a way to get the file from its original source to CDR without unnecessarily creating thousands of unrelated objects, as that is the real cause of the problem. A simple curve can be stored as 3 points, not 500 tiny plot lines.
Thanks for the reply Harry. Unfortunately I cannot attach a copy of the graphic.
The offending items in the graphic are "workstations" which consist of a PC, monitor, keyboard, joystick, and the stand (which has casters on the bottom) on which those items sit. The casters and the keyboards are where the most significant number of individual objects exist.
The original file is a .dgn (Microstation) file - unfortunately, I don't have Mircostation on my PC, so I have to import the .dgn into AutoCAD and export as a .dwg (which I can then import into Corel). Once imported into AutoCAD, I spent a good bit of time "combining" objects (using the join feature).
After importing the .dwg into Corel, I performed a number of welds in an attempt to reduce the number of objects in the .cdr file; which is how I got the exported .cgm down to 2.5 MB. I don't have any specific requirement to make the file smaller, but if I can reduce the size a bit more to please the customer, I'd certainly like to do that.
Keep in mind, I am by no means an expert with either of these programs (AutoCAD and Corel); i'm basically self-taught on both. So if I'm doing something wrong, or if there's something else I'm not aware of that I should be trying, please let me know. Thanks again for any advice.
Hello RoobyDooby; It is going to be best to make a small file that has the problems, and post it here like Harry is saying. There is not way we could know what you have or what you need to do.
George
Do you need to do this a lot?
I found http://www.reaconverter.com/download/ which looks like it can convert dgn to svg and several other formats. It is not a program I have used, but it might be worth downloading the trial of the standard version to see if the files it creates are any more useful.
Unfortunately, I can't provide the actual file (for export/proprietary reasons). I certainly wish I could as I'm sure that folks here would be able to offer a solution.
At this point I'm more curious as to what might cause the export issues, because earlier in the process I was able to get a usable .cgm export.
Thank you for your time though.