For the past three years I have been using another local signshop to produce Edge printed decals. Since we work in the Signlab world (not Gerber) the modus operendi has been to create the file in Coreldraw (Version 8), take them to the Edge shop along with a paper inkjet print of the anticipated decal then wait a day or two for them to convert it to Omega and print the decals. This generally works fine but recently the projects have become more complex. Often the files have a combination of vectors and bitmaps (Corel Photopaint CPT) imbedded in the Draw file.

The Edge shop seems to have difficulty with these. They end up recreating some part of the file in the Omega sofware and spending a considerable amount of time on the project. Recently the have asked me to supply the bitmaps as a seperate TIF file. I have done that but the results still seem to be recreated bitmaps.

In other cases they have used the bitmap portion of the Coreldraw file but recreated all the vectors.

They are getting agitated with these projects and I am getting results that are different from what I expected.

Can anyone shed some light on what the problem maybe in going frow Coreldraw to Omega? Does anyone know a better way that I could provide the files to them in (short of buying and learning Omega!)

I'm not real great with the Edge and Omega either because I don't own one, I use someone else's machine.

I do most of mine designs in Corel and when they need to be printed on the Edge I export them as Illustrator files (*.ai). Then import into Omega.

This has worked for me, but like you mentioned, sometimes puts weird lines in the drawings.

You can scroll down to the file conversions section, and there's a fact sheet for converting Corel files there. When there, you might check out the section on the Edge as well. You can print out the individual topics and keep them as reference sheets.

Gerber Omega looks at files and file objects not unlike Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop (I suspect Gerber's programers are Adobe fans). Corel handles bitmaps and vectored objects a bit differently (and I think better in many respects).

To get a Corel file into Gerber Omega as painlessly as possible, this is how I do it.....

1) Create your Corel file.
2) Convert all text to curves ( ctrl+q).
3) Save all vectored files into a seperate file (I use 1.cdr over and over for this step).
4) Export all bitmap images, each into its own BMP file.
5) In Omega, open the 1.cdr file.
6) Then import the BMP files.
7) Arrange the various objects as desired.

What your Edge supplier needs for you to do is to provide them a CDR file with vectored objects only, and the bitmap images in their own TIF or BMP files. (just a note, Gerber prefers to use BMP format, but TIF will work fine) Your Edge supplier can then combine them as they need.

There is a minor bug. Bitmap images tend to be a few pixels longer than their vectored counter parts. This means that the bitmap needs to be compressed horizonally just slightly, or the vectored object needs to be stretched just a hair or two.

If you have a vectored image with a lot of gradients, it might be better to make a copy of the object, convert it to a bitmap, then send both the vectored shape and the bitmap to Omega.

When Corel is involved, I rarely use AI or EPS. Corel CDR (ver. 8) seems to do the best for transfering vectored objects correctly into Omega.

Feel free to contact me if you have any specific questions or problems.

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This may be of some help for you as you create your files.....

[ October 08, 2001: Message edited by: Glenn Taylor ]

I am printing this out and putting it in my file called: For when the student is ready....the teacher is already here

I have Corel 9, and Illustrator 9. I have used Illustrator for years, & only used corel to open client corel files and export to .ai

I have found predictable results saving strictly vector illustrator files down to version 6, and re-opening in Omega where each fill & stroke color can be selected as a group, by color, & re-assigned with spot foil colors. Definantly some set-up time & chance for errors, but not too difficult.

Ken, I am going to take a look at the Gerber site. That is a good idea that I would not of thought of.

Myra, you are right about Glenn...hetheman. Note that he will very soon hit 3000 posts at this site. He has always been willing to contribute. provide insight and be helpful. Even when the challanges of keeping his own business from floating away were huge.