Hi, welcome to this video, dedicated to advanced 2D drawing and filling
with CorelDRAW X7!
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Let's see advanced tools to draw 2D lines in CorelDRAW. All 2D line tools
available can be found in the first icon of the third section.
You have three main tools you need to know to draw professionally:
B-spline, Pen and Bézier Tools. B-Spline is used to draw curves following a
straight line. All you need is just to define nodes by clicking on your
workspace. Double-click to finish drawing. These curves are never harsh and
never have angles. You can create closed paths as well.
If you want to have major control on the curves, you can use Bezier and
Pen Tools. The Pen Tool can be used to draw straight segments and curves.
If you click on your workspace, you will create nodes and straight segments
linked together following the order of the nodes placed. To finish drawing,
just double click on the last node, or just close the figure, clicking on
the first node placed. A small circle will appear close to your pointer,
indicating that you are closing the path.
Once the figure is done, closed or not, you can edit it as you like. Select
it first and click on its path to add new nodes. Your pointer will have
a plus on it. You can delete nodes clicking on them. The sides of the
figure are always between two nodes, so these may change if you delete
some. Plus, if you hold ALT down and click on a node, you will convert the
two straight segments linked in a curve. This may not work with nodes that
close a path. Moreover, you can also hold CTRL down to edit your path. If
you click and drag while holding CTRL down on a point of the path, you can
change how the curve must be. And, if you click on a node, always holding
CTRL down, two light blue arrows, called handles, will appear. If you don't
see them, just drag the node interested a little.
Each node is linked with two handles, and so each curve is defined by two
of them. All you need to remember is that each curve goes to its nodes
always tangent to the handles. If you drag the handles, you will change
how the curve reaches the nodes. In this way you can personalize it fully.
You can also drag the nodes, moving them elsewhere.
The Pen Tool lets you draw curves while the path is in progress, too. As
long as you click once, you will fix a node. But if you hold your click and
drag, you will generate handles. Remember that curves are always tangent
to these.
The Bezier Tool works just the same, with the difference that there is no
virtual line helping you while your drawing is in progress. Try it too!
You can use the Pen Tool to edit nodes and handles made using other tools,
but it's much more practical to use the Shape Tool, that you can find in
the first section. If you draw lines with a Freehand tool, or a polygon
using the related tool, these can be always modified and edited with the
Shape Tool. For example, you can turn a regular polygon in a regular star
by using the handles. Or you can edit your B-Spline dragging the blue nodes
that compose the curve.
The Freehand Tool is like a curve made with the Pen Tool.
These are not the only tools you can use to draw curves. For example you
can use the Freehand Tool to draw straight at first, and then you can
change these to curves using the Smooth Tool on it. Choose your most
favorite way!
Let's see how to fill up objects. You have three different ways to do it.
One is to work with the Object Properties panel, as seen in the beginner
tutorial. The fastest way is to use a tool called Smart Fill, the last tool
listed in the toolbox. This simply fills up any enclosed area formed with
your 2D paths. No matter if selected or not. On top choose first the
filling color on the left, and the contour color on the right. Then just
click inside the area you want to fill up. In case any color is wrong,
delete the filling and apply another one on it.
According to CorelDRAW, the filling is identical to a 2D object. In fact,
if you check the layers, it has the same name of your 2D paths, with the
difference that there is a filling active in Object Properties. So don't
get confused: the filling is just a normal 2D object!
You can also use the Interactive Fill Tool. This lets you manage any object
filling without using the Object Properties panel. Select an object first,
and then choose between the different patterns you have on top. A Solid
color. A Gradient. In this case you can set the gradient dragging the
squares and setting the direction using the white node. You can also add
a Vector or Bitmap pattern: edit and move the rectangle to edit dimentions
and orientations.
Thanks for watching this video! Check out this guide for more!