Below are descriptions of past meetings, and links to archives of handouts used in the presentations. For those that are labeled EXE, just click on the link to download a self-extracting EXE file. Pay attention to where you save it on your system. To extract the CorelDRAW CDR file, just double-click on the EXE file. You will be prompted for a location to extract the file. Then open the CDR file in DRAW.
We are now supplying most meeting archives in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format, instead of archived CDR files. This will allow those without CorelDraw, or with older versions to see what we're up to. (And they are generally more compact, as well.) If you don't already have the free Acrobat reader, you can find it here.
Corel purchased a very sophisticated stand-alone bitmap masking application called KnockOut. At this meeting we took a first look at it and how quick and easy it is to do masking that would take hours and hours using the masking tools in Photo-Paint. To learn more about it and to purchase online, clicking here.
We went back to basics in this meeting, revisiting nodes and node editing. While basic, node editing is one of the cornerstones to the effective use of illustration programs. We also looked at paths in Photo-Paint, which are very similar to curves with nodes in Draw. They can be a very effective tool for creating complex masks.
After a long hiatus, we started up regular meetings again in October. At this meeting, we took a closer look at one of the more glamorous new features in DRAW 9, the Artistic Media tool. This is kind of a cross between PowerLines of older versions and the Natural Pen tool in version 8, except it is dramatically better than both.
In October, Wayne demonstrated how to create a wineglass, using techniques from the book CorelDraw Studio Techniques, by Huss and Priester. This is an excellent design book, and we followed its methods fairly closely, but Wayne added a few twists of his own.
The January meeting demonstrated how to create a set of web pages completely from within Draw 8. The EXE file is an archive of the original CDR file. There are two versions. In version 1, all the text was converted to graphics. In version 2, the text was left as HTML compatible text. Notice that version 2 downloads faster.
The July meeting focused on using clip-masks in Photo-Paint. This presentation has also been published by Unleashed Productions on their website: (Click to see).
The August meeting took a closer look at working between Windows applications, using cut, copy, paste and paste special. We tried to demystify OLE (Object Linking and Embedding).
The March meeting focused on converting monochrome bitmaps to vector art using OCR-Trace, and also converting monochrome to color bitmaps in Photo-Paint, and enhancing them with Painterly effects.
In April, we took a very boring picture of the beach at Huntington, and applied a variety of vector and bitmap effects to it, to make it more interesting.
A PDF file generated from our CorelDraw 8 preview file. It demonstrates some of the new features found in Draw 8.
Our January meeting topics—an add-in for Draw, called Tekit, that is used to create isometric (3D) views of objects. For more info on Tekit, go to Foohills Graphics. Also an Origami Crane, by Brian White. You can print the file and actually cut and fold the crane.
This contains a CDR7 file that explains some customization features available in Draw 7
This contains a CDR7 file that describes how to record basic scripts, and how to enhance these with the editor. Two scripts are also included.
An exploration of some of the special effects available in Photo-Paint. This is a CDR7 file that explains what was done, and includes examples of the bitmaps.
Drawing a package in 3D. This example borrowed heavily from the CorelDRAW Design Workshop, by Hamlin and Meyer. We took one of their examples, but altered a few of the techniques to utilize Draw 7 features.
We introduced masking techniques for rendering objects in Draw that look 3 dimensional. There is both a version 5 and version 7 CDR file.
More on rendering from the previous meeting, a dialog driven script example, and Diane Farley's explorations into a logo design based on an ostrich.