Welcome to the Online Help File for
the RasterControl Macro for CorelDRAW

 

Installation Help                                  Main Product Page

Product Summary: the 3 Different Sections
     QuickRC
     RasterControl
     MultiRC

This an advanced "Edit Bitmap" for CorelDRAW. The main difference is that instead of just Photo-PAINT, you can use any image editor (such as Photoshop), and after editing, the bitmap retains all the live transformations and transparency effects previously applied in CorelDRAW before external editing.

To use it? Select your bitmaps, press one icon. Edit in Photoshop. Easy!

QuickRC is the equivalent to the existing CorelDRAW/Photo-PAINT "Edit Bitmap" function. However, now you can use Photoshop instead!

To set the alternate editor, simply run RasterControl first and choose that editor. When you run QuickRC, that editor will be used.

QuickRC does not keep temporary files after the completed round-trip edit.

Tip: If you always want to keep the images separate In CorelDRAW and open them as single files in an editor, select them and choose QuickRC.

This part of the product shows a panel with very detailed information about linked bitmaps in a document, as well as a summary of their characteristics (color model, resolution, and transparency).

You can open a bitmap in raster editor from the panel, but unlike QuickRC, linked temporary files are created.

You can replace a bitmap with another linked file.

You can choose a Linked Files Folder, and much more. Through it, bitmap files can be linked, and not embedded.

When you open the bitmap in an editor, it will open the file, then update will show in the document, while maintaining the link.

This works much better than Corel's linking system for bitmaps.

You can send multiple bitmaps from CorelDRAW as a single multi-layer file. You can choose to frame the obects with these choices:

  • Page
  • Selection
  • Object

You may have many bitmaps in CorelDRAW which must be fixed in an editor. Select them, and send it to the editor. Each image will be on a separate layer in one document.

You can separately move and edit layers, while seeing the full picture.

After saving, the result is returned to the document as a single composite bitmap.

Tip: If you always want to keep the images separate and open them as single files in an editor, select them and choose QuickRC instead.

More information about MultiRC.

What's displayed inside RasterControl?

Various columns are shown across the top.

  1. Bitmap Name. When you hover the mouse over a linked bitmap, the full path to the linked files is shown. For embedded bitmaps (gray circles), the name and path on where the linked file once was.
  2. Page Number the bitmap is located on.
  3. Color model. When you hover the mouse over the icon, the name of the color model is shown.
  4. Resolution. There are three icons: low, normal and high resolution. The range for normal permit choose to tab "Options" in the fields "Resample min" and "Resample max". When you hover the mouse over the icon, it will reveal horizontal and vertical resolution of that bitmap.
  5. Transparency. The icons shows if the bitmap has an embedded alpha channel. This is very different from Live Transparency applied to a bitmap using CorelDRAW.

Tip: By clicking at the top of the columns, you can sort bitmaps by those columns.

If you click on the "&", the list shows a summary for your bitmaps. Linked, Embedded, Grouped, and PowerClipped bitmaps are automatically allocated to the corresponding row in the list.

How do RasterControl links work?

After editing and saving a linked bitmap back to CorelDRAW, the macro automatically scans the bitmap files, and if they detect the changes, the corresponding bitmap updates in the document.

Where are the linked bitmap files? By default, the files will be in a folder named after the document with attachment "_links", which is in the same folder as the document itself.

In the case of a new, as yet unsaved file, macro default terminates bitmap files in the folder:

X:\Program Files\CorelDRAW\CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 13\Draw\GMS\dz_RasterControl

You can also select any folder. click on the icon to "Select folder for unloading".

What is displayed inside RasterControl? Linked files are the same color model and resolution as the ones in CorelDRAW. Alpha channels are retained. All the transformations, filleted corners and vector clipping paths are removed and the file is in this sense in the form in which it was originally imported into CorelDRAW.
File Extensions 5 types are available: CPP, PP5, PPF, PSD, and TIF. We recommend TIF for RasterControl.
What Editors can be used? Theoretically, any that works with the files types mentioned. Photo-PAINT is the default from Corel as we know. However, it can be replaced by any other editor. To do this, click "Select Bitmap Editor" in the Options area, and then using Windows Explorer, locate the .exe file for your editor. the macro has been tested with Photo-PAINT X3/X4, and with Adobe Photoshop (7.0, CS, CS2 and CS3).
Are there any restrictions? Remember that in returning to CorelDRAW, images will be subjected to the same transformation as the original bitmap. In this regard avoid cropping/resizing the image. Otherwise, the location in CorelDRAW may change.

Understanding linked bitmaps:

In the list on the left shows the status of these links in the form of colored circles:

  • Green means that a linked file exists, and the last updated one is current with the date recorded in bitmap. The bitmap file on CorelDRAW's page and on disk match.
  • Yellow means that the linked file exists, but dates do not match. You should update that bitmap.
  • Red means that a file stored in the links folder for this bitmap does not exist.
  • Gray means that this bitmap isn't linked. It's an embedded bitmap in CorelDRAW. Editing it simply opens the linked image file.

    This is a very opportune moment. Why? You can save multiple-layer TIF files, masks, and layer style effects, which if imported into CorelDRAW document would normally be discarded. Cool!

    • Do bitmap always automatically update?

    Not always;

  • Bitmap does not automatically update if the macro form is closed.
  • If you opened and the corrected image file with CorelDRAW closed, it will not be automatically updated. You may need to click "Refresh links" after editing.
    • What does breaking links do?

    To break links, select the bitmap you want to break the link for and click "Break links". In this case, all information about the links for the bitmap are erased, and the circle in the list becomes gray. This image is now embedded in CorelDRAW.

    If you do not want to save the previously linked file that is on disk, then select the bitmap and click "Remove linked files".

    I have a bitmap on disk and also a bitmap in a document. Can I link them with each other? Yes. To do this, select bitmap and click "Relink". Use Windows Explorer to find the bitmap file and click "Open". Then, the macro links them, and automatically update the bitmap in accordance with the file you'd selected. The same method can be used for misplaced files on disk (red circles).
    Are links preserved in CorelDRAW documents when I close the file?

    If you save a document before closing, the links are saved. The document preserves the path to the folder with your linked files.

    What is MultiRC?

    		Use this when you want to export selected bitmaps as a single multi-layer file, where each object will be on a separate layer.
    How does MultiRC work?

    Steps:

    1. Choose the bitmaps you want to export as single multi-layer file and run MultiRC.
    2. The default path and name is the same as a document, just suffixed with "_multilayer". Otherwise, you can change the path of the exported file.
    3. In the "Select file settings" area, choose a color model (Grayscale, CMYK or RGB), transparency, Anti-Aliasing, resolution (dpi) and file type (CPP, PPF, or PSD). Used PSD for editing in Photoshop.
    4. In the "Frame to" area, choose the boundaries of the exported file. The file may cropped to the perimeter of another selected shape such as a rectangle.
    5. You choose whether to clip objects to a file box (Crop Image). The ability to disable this checkbox is only available for Photoshop CS, CS2 and CS3 editors.
    6. You can choose to update the linked bitmap in CorelDRAW after editing with MultiRC.
    7. The Select Bitmap Editor buttons allows you to select the image editor which will open your multi-layer file.
    8. Press OK. The macro exports a multi-layer file, then opens it in your chosen editor.
    9. If "Replace objects on linked bitmap" was checked, after saving in the editor the file is imported back into CorelDRAW as a single flattened bitmap. It should appear in place. Original single bitmaps sent for previous editing are deleted.