Hello,
we use CorelDraw X5 to make cartographies on building plans with several layers of - mostly - polylines drawings (one layer = one building material type or one weathering form type) and we must give them back to architects who use AutoCAD.
We already tried several times to export the .cdr to .dxf or .dwg files, but till now, the architect seems to be able to open the files, but our cartographie is quite illegible: only some parts of the layers are visible and it seems that some layers are not visible at all...
Does someone can first tell me if the exportation .cdr to .dxf/.dwg is really possible?
If it's possible, does someone can explain me how to exactly do? (the help doesn't help me at all till now...)
Thanks,
Bénédicte
Have you tried importing the DXF/DWG file back into an empty new CorelDraw document to see if you see the same as your recipient? Or the free DWG TrueView viewer.
DXF/DWG seem to be very limited in their capability and the mention of "unmapped colours" in the export dialogue sounds a warning alarm that a complete conversion may not always be possible.
My quick test (in X4, so may not be completely the same for you) is certainly showing some unexpected conversions. For instance, my yellow filled object with a black outline is re-importing as an unfilled object with a yellow outline of changed thickness.
Best suggestion I can make is to experiment with different colours and see which get through unscathed, and try to limit your design to those colours.
Also, since you are using layers, check the layers all have display/print flags.
Thank you for your reply and the tests you did.
Yes, we already test these things. We even tried first with very simple files with only two or three layers and we remarked the same as you: some of the shapes changed, some not. And we also checked the print state of each layers before to export.
I learned some things: for ex. the result we obtain by making an exportation is much better than the result you can have with just "save as" .dxf or .dwg. Or I also remarked that the created .dxf or .dwg file must be in exactly the same directory as the original .cdr file... And the more layers we have before to export, the worst is the result.
We thought to give up the .dxf or .dwg because we obtain a perfect result by exporting in .pdf: all the layers are there, with good shape, good colours. But the architect is not able to reimport our .pdf files in AutoCAD... argh...
Thank you for the advice.
I will have a look on these macros.
I tried export metafile (wmf) gives its best results as dxf
The most easy way to take AutoCAD drawings to Corel Draw as vector curves is to use the wmf format. Export your drawings from AutoCAD as WMF. Go to file, click on export
Define a folder to export the file and select the wmf (windows metafile) format in the dropdown box:When you click on ‘save’ you will come to your model space in AutoCAD. Now select your desired are of your drawing to export it as wmf for using in other vector graphics softwares like Corel Draw.
After selection press Enter or right-click. Your wmf file is now saved to the folder. Now open the Corel Draw file. Drag the wmf file from the folder and drop inside your drawing (you can do it using the ‘import’ command in corel also). Your AutoCAD drawing will now appear as vector curves in Corel Draw. To edit or render the drawing in Corel, just right click on the drawing and ‘ungroup’ it.
You are done. Now start rendering the drawing in Corel draw. You can change line thickness and color (press F12), you can also fill any area or use other effects as you desire. To keep the file size and memory usage in control of corel keep the imported drawing in a group after rendering(to group objects press ctrl+G).Another technique of using AutoCAD drawing in Corel is to save the AutoCAD drawing as ‘.dxf AutoCAD 2000’ format. You’ll get this option in ‘save as’. DXF drawings can be dragged and dropped or imported in Corel Draw directly. But you can’t select any specific area of the drawing during import export process. DXF will come with the entire model space drawing of the AutoCAD file into Corel, and often it may cause memory shortage and slow performance...