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I was using X3 previously. Never had a siginificant problem there. But now about 50% of the time my objects arn't combining or trimming properly. Reversing the curve direction worked, although it's a REAL pain in the butt, not to mention that I never had to do it before. I did however export everything as .EPS and reimported it and it combined fine then. I am guessing that something in the .EPS filter corrected the issue. Still though, this is a HUGE issue for me. I would hate to think that to merely combine some objects that I will have to export and import them.
This old thread explains exactly what I'm dealing with now. I'm trying to make the transition from Illustrator back to CorelDraw, but this problem seems impossible to solve. CorelDraw X6 is failing to trim the files I'm throwing at it 100% of the time. Even Corel's own clipart. Every vector program is failing 100% of the time. Only Illustrator succeeds and it is successful, 100% of the time. Why is Illustrator so perfect at this while all other programs fail? Why has Corel still not sorted this out? This kind of thing should be driving people crazy. Is there a secret to trimming that is not obvious?
KuttyJoe said: This old thread explains exactly what I'm dealing with now. I'm trying to make the transition from Illustrator back to CorelDraw, but this problem seems impossible to solve. CorelDraw X6 is failing to trim the files I'm throwing at it 100% of the time. Even Corel's own clipart. Every vector program is failing 100% of the time. Only Illustrator succeeds and it is successful, 100% of the time. Why is Illustrator so perfect at this while all other programs fail? Why has Corel still not sorted this out? This kind of thing should be driving people crazy. Is there a secret to trimming that is not obvious?
Hi.
Can you put some example files to test? Did you try intersecting to see if it performs any different?
~John
I've attached a file from Corel's clipart collection.
Let me add some information.
1. It doesn't matter what file I choose. Every file fails whether they're from Corel's on clipart or random eps files. They all fail to trim, or intersect simplify. I got this particular file to just about work. When I reversed the path, it trimmed, but one of the wings on the bird vanished. I copied and pasted it directly into Illustrator and it trimmed perfectly in a 10th of a second.
2. Since posting earlier I found that if I choose the path editing tool, then choose to reverse the path I have better success, but still not perfect.
3. I tried intersecting and I also tried simplify. Everything fails.
4. After attempting to trim, intersect, or simplify, when I pressed undo on some files, it went on for like 1 - 2 minutes doing something. I don't know what. I could see what looked like something "running" around all the anchor points over and over again. Instead of instantly doing an undo, it went on like that for over a minute. I thought it had crashed at first but I just let it go and finally it finished whatever it was that it was doing. The path operation happens reasonably quickly, but pressing undo after it fails so I can try again does something very strange and for a long time.
5. I went through the trouble of converting all the outlines to objects in this file so you could easily attempt to trim it, but that is another sore spot for CorelDraw. In Illustrator, you open a file like this, select all, then do a single command to convert all the outlines to objects, then another single command to trim it all out. It takes 1.5 seconds or less and always works. CorelDraw doesn't allow you to simply select all. If you select a shape with an outline and another shape without an outline together, the option to convert the outline is grayed out. This is generally how things are in Draw. Only objects with like characteristics can have operations performed on them. For example live text selected together with objects. In Illustrator you can perform operations meant for text even if you've selected regular objects together with the text. Or you can select objects with outlines together with objects without outlines, then do the command to convert outlines to solids and it works. Otherwise, you'd have to carefully find all shapes that have outlines to perform the operation. That's what I'm doing now in CorelDraw, with the help of the "select same" macro.
KuttyJoe said: I've attached a file from Corel's clipart collection. 1. It doesn't matter what file I choose. Every file fails whether they're from Corel's on clipart or random eps files. They all fail to trim, or intersect simplify. I got this particular file to just about work. When I reversed the path, it trimmed, but one of the wings on the bird vanished. I copied and pasted it directly into Illustrator and it trimmed perfectly in a 10th of a second.
Here is an infographic that may help you out......
I see it working as expected on my end. I've never had a problem with trim or intersect. Perhaps it is failing on items with certain effects only.
I also never needed to use the other commands like Simplify. You can do everything needed with Trim, Weld, and Intersect.
Oh, if you want to trim multiple items as one shape then group it. Then ungroup after your done .
See video:
It didn't work. Notice in the video when you start pulling the black lines off the wings, you have solid green beneath the black. The black should have knocked a hole right through the green. The demonstration above looks as if "simplify" has worked but it has also failed. The black shapes around the tail feathers should be complete rounded shapes but instead they look like half circles. The end result is different looking than the original art. It's better than the result I'm getting, but inconsistent at best.
I remember occasionally having this kind of problem in Draw, but now is different. It's failing on everything but the simplest stuff. If I select two shapes out of the bird and press trim, it will work. If I select the entire bird and press trim, it fails. After reversing path direction, it still fails though not in the same way.
How about this.....Take the Corel file, export it to ai, edit it by trimming and simplifying in illustrator, then post the results you are after back here. Then we can understand exactly what you need.
KuttyJoe said:It didn't work. Notice in the video when you start pulling the black lines off the wings, you have solid green beneath the black. The black should have knocked a hole right through the green. The demonstration above looks as if "simplify" has worked but it has also failed. The black shapes around the tail feathers should be complete rounded shapes but instead they look like half circles. The end result is different looking than the original art. It's better than the result I'm getting, but inconsistent at best.
Ah. I think you are thinking of a batch trim operation. Sorry, I am not familiar enough with Illustrator.
What you are talking about would be like the result of a trace operation, or a batch trim whereas each object is trimmed from each other.
Am I on the right track?
The result should be that the end result looks identical to the original file. The only difference is that there are no shapes under other shapes. Nothing complicated. Open file, select all art, press trim once, done. Your "simplify" result is encouraging but there's no explanation of why you get that result and I don't. That part is discouraging.
RunFlaCruiser said: It didn't work. Notice in the video when you start pulling the black lines off the wings, you have solid green beneath the black. The black should have knocked a hole right through the green. The demonstration above looks as if "simplify" has worked but it has also failed. The black shapes around the tail feathers should be complete rounded shapes but instead they look like half circles. The end result is different looking than the original art. It's better than the result I'm getting, but inconsistent at best. Hi. Ah. I think you are thinking of a batch trim operation. Sorry, I am not familiar enough with Illustrator. What you are talking about would be like the result of a trace operation, or a batch trim whereas each object is trimmed from each other. Am I on the right track? ~John [/quote] Batch trim? Nothing in Illustrator called batch trim. Just trim. Open file, select all, press trim, done. The problem is that nobody is getting a result which is identical to the original untrimmed file though the Simplify result is very close. The only difference I can see is in the tail feathers. As I try with different files, they all fail in different ways. Some of them fail when I try to convert outlines to curves. The outlines become open paths so I can't get to the point of trying to trim it. This whole process is just seconds in Illustrator and always works. So far I haven't found another vector program that can do this perfectly. It's very surprising.
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Batch trim? Nothing in Illustrator called batch trim. Just trim. Open file, select all, press trim, done. The problem is that nobody is getting a result which is identical to the original untrimmed file though the Simplify result is very close. The only difference I can see is in the tail feathers. As I try with different files, they all fail in different ways. Some of them fail when I try to convert outlines to curves. The outlines become open paths so I can't get to the point of trying to trim it. This whole process is just seconds in Illustrator and always works. So far I haven't found another vector program that can do this perfectly. It's very surprising.