opening X7 document shows blank screen

I congratulate you on working out a tricky problem!

I find that if I open it in X7 and delete only the Style Set "SKU Overline1", that's enough to make the file open in 2018.

If I use a VBA macro to get a text description of the information for that style, it looks like this:

{"fill":{"type":"1","overprint":"0","primaryColor":"CMYK255,USER,77,77,77,255,100,00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","screenSpec":"0,0,45000000,60,0"},"outline":{"type":"0","overprint":"0","angle":"0","screenSpec":"0,0,45000000,60,0","behindFill":"1","scaleWithObject":"1","overlapArrow":"0","shareArrow":"0","endCaps":"0","joinType":"0","width":"3175","aspect":"100","matrix":"1,0,0,0,1,0","color":"CMYK255,USER,77,77,77,255,100,00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","dashDotSpec":"0","leftArrow":"|0","leftArrowAttributes":"0|0|0|0|0|0|0","rightArrow":"|0","rightArrowAttributes":"0|0|0|0|0|0|0","dotLength":"0","miterLimit":"45","justification":"0"},"character":{"inherits":"thk blue line","fill":{"type":"1","overprint":"0","primaryColor":"CMYK255,USER,77,77,77,255,100,00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","screenSpec":"0,0,45000000,60,0"},"outline":{"type":"0","overprint":"0","angle":"0","screenSpec":"0,0,45000000,60,0","behindFill":"1","scaleWithObject":"1","overlapArrow":"0","shareArrow":"0","endCaps":"0","joinType":"0","width":"3175","aspect":"100","matrix":"1,0,0,0,1,0","color":"CMYK255,USER,77,77,77,255,100,00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","dashDotSpec":"0","leftArrow":"|0","leftArrowAttributes":"0|0|0|0|0|0|0","rightArrow":"|0","rightArrowAttributes":"0|0|0|0|0|0|0","dotLength":"0","miterLimit":"45","justification":"0"},"latin":{"font":"Tekton Pro Cond","charset":"0","size":"42333","weight":"4096","italic":"0","underline":"0","overline":"3","strikeout":"0","script":"0","effect":"0"},"RTL":{"font":"Tekton Pro Cond","charset":"0","size":"42333","weight":"64","italic":"0","underline":"0","overline":"3","strikeout":"0","script":"0","effect":"0"},"farEast":{"font":"Tekton Pro Cond","charset":"0","size":"42333","weight":"64","italic":"0","underline":"0","overline":"3","strikeout":"0","script":"0","effect":"0"},"tnum":"0","liga":"0","valt":"0","vhal":"0","smpl":"0","jp78":"0","jp83":"0","jp90":"0","expt":"0","nalt":"0","fwid":"0","hwid":"0","halt":"0","qwid":"0","twid":"0","cpct":"0","kern":"1","palt":"1"},"frame":{},"paragraph":{"RTL":"0","justify":"2","interCharSpacing":"310235","interLangSpacing":"0","interWordSpacing":"2490235","interLineSpacing":"900000","beforeParaSpacing":"900000","afterParaSpacing":"900000","maxInterCharSpacing":"2000000","minInterWordSpacing":"600000","maxInterWordSpacing":"3000000","spacingMethod":"0","thinAbsolute":"0","thinDistance":"-190909","thinThickness":"45455","thickAbsolute":"0","thickDistance":"-90909","thickThickness":"90909","dblUnderline1Absolute":"0","dblUnderline1Distance":"-90909","dblUnderline1Thickness":"45455","dblUnderline2Absolute":"0","dblUnderline2Distance":"-181819","dblUnderline2Thickness":"45455","thinOverlineAbsolute":"0","thinOverlineDistance":"845455","thinOverlineThickness":"45455","thickOverlineAbsolute":"0","thickOverlineDistance":"868182","thickOverlineThickness":"90909","dblOverline1Absolute":"0","dblOverline1Distance":"800000","dblOverline1Thickness":"45455","dblOverline2Absolute":"0","dblOverline2Distance":"890910","dblOverline2Thickness":"45455","thinStrikeoutAbsolute":"0","thinStrikeoutDistance":"333333","thinStrikeoutThickness":"45455","thickStrikeoutAbsolute":"0","thickStrikeoutDistance":"356060","thickStrikeoutThickness":"90909","dblStrikeout1Absolute":"0","dblStrikeout1Distance":"378788","dblStrikeout1Thickness":"45455","dblStrikeout2Absolute":"0","dblStrikeout2Distance":"287878","dblStrikeout2Thickness":"45455"}}

One thing that catches my eye is the part that reads:

"character":{"inherits":"thk blue line".

That style does not show up in the Style Sets as a  "child" of "thk blue line"!

If I open your file in X7, and try to change the Font used for "SKU Overline1", it crashes.

CorelDRAW could use some serious improvements in how Styles are handled. They can be very useful when they work, but wow, what a mess if they get sick.

Interesting.  I tried deleting one of those two and 'save as' and it crashed coreldraw.  That's why I just narrowed it down to those to and both can be deleted with save as without crash.  Pretty cool analysis you got there Eskimo.  This 'bug' will prevent us from upgrading to 2018 becuase that style is in ALL of our drawings.  Deleting and saving each in X7 would be a waste of time.

A CorelDRAW document is stored as a .ZIP file, and the styles are stored in there as a file named "document.cdss", which is plain text.

If I get a copy of document.cdss out of the ZIP file, a snip of it looks like this:

If I remove the highlighted line, then put the modified document.cdss back in place of the original one in the ZIP file, then the document opens in CorelDRAW 2018.

That doesn't solve your problem, but it's consistent with the notion that the one line of text is what makes the document toxic to 2018.

Hey Eskimo, how would I automate the opening of a CDR file to delete all style sets then it can be opened in CorelDraw X7 with all styles gone?  I have a document with over 100 object styles and using a macro to delete all styles takes so long that it crashes/freezes corel.

I don't know any tricks for deleting styles in CorelDRAW beyond using a VBA macro, or manually editing the .cdss file in the document as in the example above. Another option would be to replace the .cdss file with one that doesn't have any custom styles in it.

Can you share a representative file? Privately, if you would prefer not to post it?