Corel Draw

[bigsummitmetalart]

Im am trying to get feedback as to which Corel Draw programs everyone uses and what the Pro's & Con's are. Thanks in advance!

[Gamelord]

I use Corel Draw along with others.
Pros:
Easy to use,
Fast,
Easy to edit nodes, make changes to drawings
Great font tools
Converts to DFX fairly effortlessly
Can also import DFX files with no issues
Trace works fairly well
Much less expensive than Adobe Illustrator

Cons:
Does have some minor bugs/crashes, poor customer support regarding such bugs
Not the industry standard for drawings (compared to Adobe)
New version every year, upgrades cost appx. $200 bucks/year to go to the latest version.

Adobe Illustrator has a new cloud service, you pay a monthly subscription fee, usually $50/month or $600/year. Sale going on right now for $30/month for first year. This gives you the entire Adobe suite worth of programs and all upgrades to the latest versions are free (well, not free if you consider you are paying every month for the program). For a business, this may be a great way to go. For a home shop or DIY-er, this can be pretty darn expensive over time.
Pros:
Fantastic customer support, program runs nearly bug/crash free, everything always works like it should.
.AI files are supported industry wide
A little more robust than Corel in features and especially color control

Cons:
Costs quite a bit more than Corel (almost double - more if you use the cloud service)
A bit more complicated to learn than Corel
Trace feature is not quite as good
Exporting to DFX can be a little more tricky, but not an issue once you get the right settings.

[bigsummitmetalart]

Thank you for the input. So which version of Corel would you recommend?

[Gamelord]

I am currently running X5 but haven't heard anything bad about the new version X6 - just haven't upgraded yet. I am also doing a lot more in Adobe these days because of some of the issues I have had with Corel - which is also why I haven't upgraded. I was considering moving everything to Adobe, but it looks like my best option is to have both because even though they are both very similar, one does some things just a little better than the other going both ways. Time will tell. I started out in graphic design with Corel so I do have very good knowledge concerning it and it is second nature to me. If they fixed the irritating bugs, I would not bother with anything else.

If you are running XP, you will want to double check your Corel version before purchasing, the X versions may not run on XP. If you are using windows 7 then you will have no problems running any version. I do know that X3 & X4 seemed to have the most bugs. X5 has most of them worked out but there are still a few that you need to work around.

[muzza]

I run X5 on Windows XP with no issues, apart from me being a dumbarse when it comes to drawing but no version of windows is going to fix that .


When I get stuck with something I generally hit "help" or google my problem and get an answer or video to help me out, still got the other 99% to learn yet but I'm having more success with Corel than I did with Inkscape and other free downloads.

I have also learned heaps here from Gamelord, Gary and others who are extremely helpful, there's no substitute for practical experience, thanks guys.

Murray

[SignTorch Vector Art]

In my mind, there's two options

1) corel draw and v-carve pro to export dxf (with arcs)

2) adobe illustrator and the exdxf plugin to export dxf (with arcs)

cost seems about the same for either package

I prefer corel draw partly because it has one node editing tool that is less cumbersome than illustrator's multiple node editing tools, and v-carve pro is also especially useful for running cnc routers and mills (and CAD style drawing)

I also like corel's interface and customizability more than illustrator's, but they're both good programs, I wouldn't say either is better, just that they have very different ways of doing the same things.

I don't use either for raster to vector (i use autotrace for that)

With v-carve pro to make dxf from eps then you can get by with corel X3 or later, X3 and X4 only exports dxf with splines, X5 and X6 can export older dxf versions to, but X5 and X6 has the join nodes tool which is good, and X6 has the ability to add fillets or chamfers in the contour command which is good