COREL TOOLS

Graph Paper Tool

Corel DRAW provides some non conventional tools and Graph Paper tool is one of them. We will learn how to use this tools in this lesson.

1. Open Corel DRAW.

2. Select Graph Paper Tool (marked with green circle).

3. Once you select this tool you will get the properties of the tool in the Property bar which is situated at the top. Change rows and columns according to the requirements.

4. Drag the cursor on the page. You will get graph paper on the page that has specified rows and columns.

5. If you press CTRL key and drag the cursor, you will get the graph paper in square form and the rows and columns will be adjusted within the square.

Shaping Basics

We will start with the shaping where we can weld, trim, intersect and do lot more things with the selected objects. Let us understand the basic principle of weld, trim and intersect.

1. You always need two objects for weld, trim and intersect.

2. Better to overlap them first before you work with weld, trim and intersect.

3. When you overlap two objects and go for weld command, the overlapped part of the objects is melted and the two objects are turned into one single object.

4. If you overlap two objects and try trim command, the overlapped part of the first object will cut or trim the part of the second object.

5. If you overlap two objects and try intersect command, the overlapped or the intersected part will be available separately.

6. There are different ways to work with shaping commands. Shaping can be useful to create irregular shapes.

Polygon Tool

1. Open Corel DRAW.

2. Select Polygon Tool (marked with green circle).

3. Drag the cursor on the page. You will get Polygon.

4. By default it may have 5 points. If you want to draw polygon with even sides, press CTRL and drag the cursor.

5. Please keep the polygon selected. Change the points of polygon in the property bar to 7.

6. The 5-point polygon is changed to 7 points. It means it has 7 sides now.

7. Experiment with polygon by increasing and decreasing the points. Fill the color and check out the effect.

Interactive Transparency Tool

A bit tricky tool gives you transparent object. It provides the transparency in terms of gradation where the black gives full transparency and the white gives opaque object. We need to draw two different colored objects to check out the transparency.

1. Open Corel DRAW.

2. Select Rectangle Tool and draw rectangle. Fill it with red color.

3. Draw another rectangle which will overlap the large portion of the previous red rectangle. Fill this new rectangle with green color. Keep the top green rectangle selected.

4. Select Interactive Transparency Tool. It's in the same menu that of Interactive Blend Tool (shown with green circle). You need to press the menu to display the tool.

5. Place the cursor at the top left corner of the green rectangle and drag it to the bottom right corner.

6. You will get the dotted line with small white and the black rectangle at an end.

7. You will notice that the portion around white rectangle is opaque and the portion around the black rectangle is transparent where you can see red rectangle through it.

8. Try to drag the cursor in any other direction.

Weld To

We can weld the object using different methods and thus we have more control on the procedure. Here we will select the object to which we want to weld the initially selected object.

1. Open Corel Draw.

2. Select Rectangle tool and draw a rectangle. Draw another rectangle so as to overlap the part of the first one. Keep the second rectangle selected.

3. Go to Arrange > Shaping > Shaping

4. This will open the docker i.e. the dialogue box fixed to the right of the desktop.

5. Uncheck source and target object initially (if they are checked).

6. Click Weld To.

7. You will get "Weld To" cursor to select the object you want to weld to the already selected object.

8. Click the cursor on the first rectangle.

9. The selected rectangle is welded to the clicked rectangle to form one single object.

Weld To – Target, Source Object

Let us get into more details about the Weld To command.

1. Open Corel Draw.

2. Select Rectangle tool and draw a rectangle. Draw another rectangle so as to overlap the part of the first one. Keep the second rectangle selected.

3. Go to Arrange > Shaping > Shaping

4. This will open the docker i.e. the dialogue box fixed to the right of the desktop.

5. Check "Source Object" only.

6. Click Weld To

7. You will get "Weld To" cursor to select the object you want to weld to the already selected object. Click the cursor on the first rectangle.

8. The selected rectangle is welded to the clicked rectangle to form one single object. And the source object that is the initially selected rectangle will also remain intact.

9. So you get the welded object as well as the original source object on the page.

10. When you do the same procedure checking the target object in the docker, you get the target object intact after welding.

11. And when you check both Target and source object, you get both the objects intact with the welded one on the page.

Trim

Trim can be used to create complex shapes. The process of trimming depends on what object you select for trim. Please understand the procedure carefully.

1. Open Corel Draw.

2. Select Rectangle tool and draw a rectangle. Select Ellipse tool and draw the circle so as to overlap the part of the rectangle. Keep the circle selected.

3. Go to Arrange > Shaping > Shaping

4. This will open the docker i.e. the dialogue box fixed to the right of the desktop. Select Trim from the drop down. "Source Object" is selected by default, if not select it leaving other option blank.

5. Click Trim. You will get "Trim" cursor to select the object you want to trim by the already selected object.

6. Click the cursor on the rectangle.

7. The selected rectangle is trimmed; it means the portion of the rectangle is cut in the shape of the overlapped part of the circle. And the source object that is the initially selected circle will also remain intact.

Shaping Basics

We will start with the shaping where we can weld, trim, intersect and do lot more things with the selected objects. Let us understand the basic principle of weld, trim and intersect.

1. You always need two objects for weld, trim and intersect.

2. Better to overlap them first before you work with weld, trim and intersect.

3. When you overlap two objects and go for weld command, the overlapped part of the objects is melted and the two objects are turned into one single object.

4. If you overlap two objects and try trim command, the overlapped part of the first object will cut or trim the part of the second object.

5. If you overlap two objects and try intersect command, the overlapped or the intersected part will be available separately.

6. There are different ways to work with shaping commands. Shaping can be useful to create irregular shapes.

Simplify

One of the best command introduced with the latest Corel draw version. Many of you may not have this if you are using older versions. This will trim the overlapping areas of the objects. You can draw more than two objects to experiment with this command.

1. Open Corel Draw.

2. Select Rectangle tool and draw a rectangle. Select Ellipse tool and draw the circle so as to overlap the part of the rectangle.

3. Then again draw an ellipse that will overlap both rectangle and the last circle.

4. We will select all of the objects to work on this command. Double click on the Pick Tool to select all the three objects.

5. Go to Arrange > Shaping > Shaping

6. This will open the docker i.e. the dialogue box fixed to the right of the desktop. Select "Simplify" from the drop down. Click Apply.

7. The first rectangle will be trimmed by the second circle and the third ellipse that are overlapped. The second circle is also trimmed by the third overlapped ellipse.

8. You will observe that the top most object i.e. the last drawn ellipse remained intact.

Intersect

When two object overlaps each other and we apply Intersect command we get the overlapped portion cut separately as an intersection.

1. Open Corel Draw.

2. Select Rectangle tool and draw a rectangle. Select Ellipse tool and draw the circle so as to overlap the part of the rectangle. Keep the circle selected.

3. Go to Arrange > Shaping > Shaping

4. This will open the docker i.e. the dialogue box fixed to the right of the desktop. Select Intersect from the drop down. "Source Object" and "Target Object" may be selected by default, if not select it.

5. Click on "Intersect With"

6. You will get "Intersect" cursor to select the object you want to intersect by the already selected object. Click the cursor on the rectangle.

7. You get the overlapped part separately intersected as a copy keeping the original objects intact.