Tracing 101

[Dee Gallo]

Dee, Thanks so much for taking the time to share and help other creekers out. I know there is usually a software package or website to help out but nothing is as good as having a person share their real life procedures. I tried your suggested method and got great results. I try and share from time to time but just don't have the experience as some of you guys (even though I am as old or older than most). I, for one, really appreciate all of you that have tried to make mine and other's engraving journey a much smoother one.

Steven, I'm so happy you got good results - you never know if your thing will work for someone else.

Jacob, we all look forward to seeing your tutorial. The more the merrier when it comes to techniques! Mine was simple simple for beginners, maybe you'd like to take it to the next level.

cheers, dee

[Dave Johnson29]

I just threw together a simple small tutorial for anyone who wants to try my tracing technique.

Dee,

Had to say another big thanks for this tutorial.

I had a logo to vector and all I got from the customer was a really bad 5 color BMP. I ran it through Corel Trace and finished up with a fairly good trace but 3,643 elements!!!

I decided to get serious with your method and in less than 20 minutes I had recreated it with 406 elements.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[Dee Gallo]

Good going Dave! I'll bet yours engraved faster and cleaner than the autotrace, too. It only gets easier.

Congrats, dee

[Dave Johnson29]

Good going Dave! I'll bet yours engraved faster and cleaner than the autotrace, too.

Hi Dee,

You got that right. I did a test burn of the autotrace and that's what got me using your method, quickly.

After 5 minutes it was about 1/4 done. With your method, it took just over a minute. I have a question but will start a new thread for it.

Thanks again.

[Richard Rumancik]

Dee's tutorial is great; here's another one that may be helpful to some people when trying to recreate text for a logo that uses an unusual font or a distorted font.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/cor...ltracelogo.htm

[Chuck Burke]

Thanks for sharing that Dee.....It has been a long while since I have been on the forum.......what a great way to come back.

Thanks again.

[Francis Kisner]

Dee,

I'm living in the ancient past using v.7. I've tried a few times and can't get your file to display anything but a blank page. Any possibility you might have a copy of the instructions in a different format? I've noticed that most of the features of the later versions are in v.7 in some way so I can usually find a work-around from instructions for modern programs.

Thanks,
Francis

[Dee Gallo]

Dee,

I'm living in the ancient past using v.7. I've tried a few times and can't get your file to display anything but a blank page. Any possibility you might have a copy of the instructions in a different format? I've noticed that most of the features of the later versions are in v.7 in some way so I can usually find a work-around from instructions for modern programs.

Thanks,
Francis

Here it is in v7 - hope you can open it!

cheers, dee

[Francis Kisner]

Dee,
I'm living in the past and using v.7. Usually I can find methods in v.7 to accomplish the same techniques available in later versions. When I try to open your attached file, all I get is a blank page.
Is there some other procedure I should be doing other than downloading? I have tried using both Firefox and Internet Explorer with the same result.
Is the document you created available in any other format?

Thanks,
Francis

[Mike Null]

Francis

Have you tried saving the file to your download folder (or other folder) then opening it with Corel?

Welcome to Sawmill Creek by the way.

[Dee Gallo]

Francis,

I have found I have to click on "save as", not "save" or I can't open any documents either. I don't change the name of the document either until after it's on my desktop, as I've lost a few that way.

cheers, dee

[Francis Kisner]

Dee,
The v.7 file opened easily. Thanks for your help.

Francis