CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide part 34 pptx

Combining objects that normally feature unique properties—such as rectangles, ellipses,
polygons, and perfect shapes—permanently converts them to curves.
If you intend to output to PostScript, it might not be a good idea to combine paths
that overlap each other. Again, it’s one of the limitations of the PostScript page
description language—in human terms, a PostScript printer or image-setting device
gets “confused” when a single closed path intersects itself; the device doesn’t know
which areas to fill and which to leave empty. If you have a design need for a shape
that looks like it self-intersects, ensure proper PostScript output by using the
Shaping docker or the buttons on the property bar when multiple objects are
selected using the Pick tool to create the illusion of a self-intersecting object.
294 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide
FIGURE 10-13 Break a compound path apart to work with the component objects.
Two separate paths
FIGURE 10-14 You can make two or more separate objects into a single compound path with
the Combine command.
Original objects
Combined objects
Breaking Paths Apart
You can separate the individual paths in a compound path using the Break Curve command
(
CTRL+K). This command is available when a compound path composed of at least two
subpaths is selected. (Using the Extract Subpath command button in the property bar also
does this, but only for the selected path.)
Converting Objects to Curves
Converting special types of objects to curves—such as shapes auto-created with the
Rectangle and Ellipse tools—frees them to be manipulated with the Shape tool as if they
were ordinary paths. Choose Arrange | Convert To Curves, press
CTRL+Q, click the Convert
To Curves button in the property bar, or right-click the object and choose Convert To Curves
from the pop-up menu.
Converting an object to curves removes any special editing properties; text loses its

ability to be edited as text, and rounded rectangles can no longer be edited to refine the
curvature of the rounded corners. Converting to curves applies to polygon, ellipse, artistic
text objects, and certain effects objects such as envelopes and perspective effects.
In this chapter, you’ve seen different tools for creating paths, but the results are more or
less the same; objects have path segments and nodes, and paths can be open or closed. You’ve
also learned how to edit paths using the Shape tool. You’d be well served to bookmark this
chapter; there’s an awful lot of power in CorelDRAW’s drawing and editing tools, and this
chapter can be a good reference in the future. After all, the program isn’t called CorelFILL
or CorelRECTANGLE—drawing is what good vector design is all about.
CHAPTER 10: Drawing and Editing Objects 295
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CHAPTER 11
Editing Objects
297
L
et’s say you’ve drawn an object and you’re fairly pleased with it, except for that little
corner that you couldn’t draw just right. Editing objects is the theme of this chapter,
where you’ll learn various techniques to massage that almost-perfect shape into exactly the
shape you’ve envisioned. Because every object you draw on a page can be broken down into
rectangles, ovals, path segments, and so on, this chapter covers the tools and features for
doing exactly this: breaking down shapes, combining them, subtracting a little of this,
adding a little of that. Often, arriving at a design of your dreams can be most quickly
accomplished by creating an approximation of the shapes you need. Then, with a pull and a
tug here and there, erasing a tiny area, perhaps you’ll get quicker results than if you had built
the object from scratch. You’ll see in this chapter that editing objects not only provides you
with the best results, but also lets you add visual complexity and embellishments that would
be hard to achieve using other methods.
Download and extract all the files from the Chapter11.zip archive to follow the
tutorials in this chapter.

Reshaping Things
You have a choice of two places to begin when you want to edit an object: you can use
operations (commands you make with the click of a property bar button), or you can use the
hands-on approach; both are covered in this chapter. Both approaches will serve you well,
and your choice largely depends on what you need to edit, and then what type of operation
is required.
Shaping and Reshaping Object Shapes
Drawing shapes from scratch is often a tedious and time-consuming process, but
CorelDRAW has great shaping commands to speed the process. Shape commands such as
Trim, Weld, Intersect, and Create Boundary make creating complex shapes quick and
painless. You’ll also find three other shape commands at your disposal: Simplify, Front
Minus Back, and Back Minus Front. In this next section, you’ll learn exactly how you can
use these commands to shape and reshape your objects. Before getting into the specifics of
each type, though, let’s take a look at where you can find them in CorelDRAW X5.
Shaping Commands and the Property Bar
CorelDRAW X5’s property bar provides shaping command buttons that enable you to shape
selected objects instantly. These property bar options become available only while at least
two objects are selected—and they make shaping commands available whether or not the
objects are positioned to overlap. Property bar shaping buttons are shown here:
298 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide
When you use property bar shaping buttons, shapes are subtracted, added, and so
on, but the original objects—except when you use Create Boundary—go away. To
keep your original objects, use the Shaping docker, which offers options to specify
that the source object (the one performing the operation—the “scissors”) and/or
target object (the object receiving the operation—the “paper”) should remain after
shaping.
When using the Shaping docker and the Weld and Intersect operations, you have an
additional helper: the Intersect With or the Weld To button (shown next) at the
bottom. When only one object is selected, naturally it’s hard for CorelDRAW to
perform these operations. The idea behind this option is that if you have several

objects nestled together (making a target object hard to select), you click the Weld
To or the Intersect With button, your cursor changes to a unique shape, and you
then click the desired target object to complete the operation.
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Intersects selected shapes
Trims selected shapes
Welds all
selected shapes
Simplifies
selected objects
Front Minus
Back
Back Minus
Front
Create Boundary:
makes new object
that surrounds
selected shapes
Now that you know where to find the buttons to launch these commands quickly, it’s
time to examine what you can do with them. The following section explains the results of
applying each command to at least two selected objects:
●
Weld The Weld command creates a new shape based on the outline shape of two
(or more) objects whether they overlap or not, as shown here. You can specify via
the Shaping docker whether the original shapes remain on the page.
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Boolean Shaping
The mathematical term for what is called “shaping” is Boolean operation. It was
named after the 19th century mathematician George Boole, who invented a logic

system in algebra for describing certain functions in plain English terms, such as
“show me A and B together,” where A and B are geometric shapes. Other shaping
operations when translated to these logical statements include “and,” “not,” “or,” and
so on. The statement “show me A but not B” can describe the function of the
CorelDRAW Back Minus Front shaping operation, as another example. This is the
basis for the operation CorelDRAW performs when you use one shape as a target and
a different one for the source in a shape operation.
Before Weld
After Weld
This illustration shows a polygonal, sun-like shape with partial transparency applied
to better show the order of objects on the page: the rectangle is behind the sun shape.
Not only did the Weld operation create a single object from the two, but it also gave
the result object the color of the bottom object. The important thing to know when
welding objects is:
●
If you marquee-select two objects for the Weld operation, the bottom object’s color
is the resulting object color.
●
If you select two or more objects one at a time with the Pick tool (by SHIFT-
clicking), the last object you choose—regardless of whether it is on top or bottom in
the stack of objects on a layer—contains the fill color that will be the result color in
the welded object.
●
Trim The Trim command removes any overlapping areas of the object in front
from the object(s) in back when marquee-selection is used, as shown next—the
rectangle in front is partially transparent to make the effect more obvious. The
original objects are automatically deleted, and no color change takes place (the back
object does not inherit the front object’s color, transparency, or any other trait). If
you select the objects one by one (click, then
SHIFT-click), the second object is

trimmed.
●
Intersect The Intersect operation creates a new object based on the overlapping
areas of two or more objects. The original objects remain on the page, and the result
is not obvious because the new object is in the same position as the overlapping
parts of the original objects. In the following figure, the sun shape was on the
bottom, and the resulting shape takes on the color of the bottom object, because
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Sun is in back
After Trim
Rectangle is moved
marquee-selection was used. Intersect is a great operation for creating difficult crops
of complex objects. The new sun shape would make a nice logo for a tanning salon!
●
Simplify The Simplify command removes all hidden areas of objects that
“underlap” foreground objects, as the example shows here. This command is great
for uncomplicating an intricate drawing, and it can also make a design that otherwise
might not print to PostScript correctly, print just fine. As you can see at middle,
there is no apparent change to this simple design after the Simplify command is
applied, but at right, you can see that when the objects are moved, overlapping areas
of the sun in back have been erased, similar but not identical to the Trim and the
Back Minus Front operations. Different order and arrangements of objects will result
in slightly different results.
●
Front Minus Back When two or more shapes are selected, applying the Front
Minus Back command removes the hidden area of the object in back from the shape
in front. When more than two shapes are selected, it removes all portions where the
302 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide
Before Intersect

After Intersect
(objects are moved)
Before Simplify
After Simplify
Objects Moved
shapes in back are overlapped by the object in front, leaving only the object in front
remaining, as shown here:
Front Minus Back is a trim operation, “A but not B” in Boolean terminology, and the
advantage to using this operation to trim objects is that it removes the guesswork of,
“Gosh, what’s the order of the objects in this design?” Front Minus Back is an
unambiguous, straightforward trim operation.
●
Back Minus Front This shaping command works in reverse of Front Minus Back.
While at least two shapes are selected, applying the Back Minus Front command
removes the portions of the shape layered in front from the shape in back. When
more than two shapes are selected, it will remove all portions where the shapes in
front overlap the shape in back, leaving only the shape in back remaining, as shown
here:
●
Create Boundary This is similar to the Weld operation, except it leaves the target
objects on the page. Also, if there are empty spaces between objects, Create Boundary
ignores them when making the combined single object. Here is an example of
several objects selected and the resulting shape. By default, the new object has no
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Before Front Minus Back
After Front Minus Back
Before Back Minus Front
After Back Minus Front