I'm trying to create dotted lines that are actually circles and not square shaped dots (the given option in the outline menu). Is the best/only way to do this by creating a new Artistic Media Brush? It seems like there should be an easier option when needing to create a long dotted line or a shape with a dotted outline.
Thanks!
I think Kiefer is looking for a way to create round/circular dots, not round dots in a circle. :) See the Outline variations, the dots are all square. I don't think we can make them circular. We can add an outline and use rounded ends and caps, but you only end up with a flat oval. You can create your own dotted outline, but the "dots" will always square.
So the best option is to create our own with Artistic Media object sprayer.
Greetings,
There is a way to change the "outlines" to produce dots. It was a hack/tweak in the code page that makes that happen, just a simple number change. It was posted in the newsgroups a few years ago and I do not remember what the change was. I am going to search my notes, hopefully I can find it. If I can I will post it here. Might have been posted by a guy named Fisher?? An old corel tech from upstate NY. Perhaps some other people that have been around for a while will remember it. Foster, Michael C ???? I know you guys seen it.
pranderson said: think Kiefer is looking for a way to create round/circular dots, not round dots in a circle. :) See the Outline variations, the dots are all square. I don't think we can make them circular. We can add an outline and use rounded ends and caps, but you only end up with a flat oval. You can create your own dotted outline, but the "dots" will always square.
Bob
I remember that there was a way to do it tweaking one of the ini files or the register, I'm not sure, but I remember it from the Corel 9 times. I must have those notes somewhere.
If it's a simple tweek to the ini file (or whatever), why didn't mother give us the option for round dots from the start?
I think I stumbled upon this file you were referring to! It's called corel.dot. It's in the X4 Custom Data folder or C:\Documents and Settings\Patti Anderson\Application Data\Corel\CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4\User Custom Data. When you make a custom dashed line it adds it there. There is also a corel.dot in Program files under X4, but you don't need to mess with that one. Anyway, I was reading some of the articles on the Corel Insider blog here and I found this article for Corel Designer. I figured the file name would be the same for CorelDraw. The article is here: Corel Insider article .
Earlier this week I found this article about Illustrator: http://www.vectordiary.com/tips-and-tricks/dotted-lines-in-illustrator/ . I thought we could do something similar in CD, but our outline customizing doesn't let us make changes to the dash and gap spaces like this.
So...putting these two ideas together, I added an extra line to the corel.dot file (opened in Notepad) like this (after backing up the original in a safe place!). Make sure this is added just BEFORE the final </pattern list> tag.
<stdPattern><dotLength>0</dotLength><dotLength>2</dotLength></stdPattern>
NOTE: If you have Microsoft Word the corel.dot file will have the Microsoft template icon. Do not open it Word -- use Windows Notepad.
When you save this text file and reopen CD it will add a new style to the drop down box and it will look blank -- but don't panic. Now go to the Outline properties and change the Line caps to rounded and tada! Keep the line width to 2.0 or above, otherwise you won't see anything, 'cause what we're doing is just putting two line caps together with nothing in the middle. :) NOTE: To delete this custom outline you will need to delete the extra line of code you added.
Advantages: It's an outline, so it has all those properties. Disadvantages: Some outline widths don't distribute the dots around the circle evenly, they will overlap at the top of a circular array. We have the same problem with dashed lines.
Conclusion...if I want a perfectly spaced circular array of dots, I think I would prefer to create my own dot and use the transformation docker!
Interesting experiment though. Perhaps someone else can come up with a better configuration with this info.
NINE+ YEARS LATER AND IT STILL WORKS! In CorelDraw 2018
THANK YOU pranderson.
Interestingly enough I've not really needed such a dot working with CorelDraw for over 5 years. However now I do. So after finding your post I started my search for the "corel.dot" with no luck. What I did find was this...
CorelDraw 2018
FILE LOCATION:C:\Users\"USERNAME"\AppData\Roaming\Corel\CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2018\Custom Data
FILE NAME:linestyles.dot
I made a backup copy, opened the original, followed your procedure & copied your code as described...
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pranderson said:
Make sure this is added just BEFORE the final </pattern list> tag.
----------------------------------
Saved the file and re-opened CD2018. I selected the line in my file and went to the outline style drop down and selected the last item which did have a preview and VOILA! it worked.
I will be making Dotted lines with actual dots a lot more now!
Thanks Again,
Scott
Now that you have the file created and its working, any chance you can pass along the file itself?
That way I can just drop it into my Custom Data folder.
I don't have a linestyles file to modify at the moment, I guess because I haven't created a custom line yet.
But it would be simple to drop your file in and save the work.
It would be most appreciated...I would pass your name along to Thanos for special privileges?
The forum wouldn't let me upload a *.dot file, so I just renamed it *.doc. Download it and save it as linestyles.dot and put it into the right place. It has two linestyles for dots at the end... one will be dots with space, the others will be dots pressed against each other.
Thanks to everyone here who added these tips --- we simulate the look of rhinestone around art pretty often. We haven't wanted to pay for a rhinestone software since we don't actually produce the transfers... we just want to simulate the look for customers browsing our online stores. This has been incredibly helpful... THANK YOU ALL!!!!
DOC
Thank you for sharing that.
Thomas W. said:we simulate the look of rhinestone around art pretty often
How do you feel about using VBA macros?
VIDEO: Circles on Curves demo 01
.
This Macro you show looks great! Is it available?
Jason Moore said:This Macro you show looks great! Is it available?
I could add an entry to my blog for this macro.
It might be a few days before I get to it. I think that the macro is essentially done, but it's another job to document/describe/demonstrate it.
The original motivation that led to this was the desire to more easily create "revision clouds":
VIDEO: Circles on Curves demo 02 (revision cloud).
As I got into it, I saw opportunities to use the code in more generalized ways.