Inspiring

Answered

Importing or Opening Corel Draw files in Illustrator ?

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
January 10, 2021
3 replies
18800 views

Just installed Illustrator on January 2021 with the latest version. Trying to open or place corel draw files from Corel 2020 and recieve the following error message.

The file "xxxxx.cdr" is an unknown file format and cannot be opened.

Installed illustrator to transition from Corel for my Trotec Laser Engraver. No longer have a working copy of Corel, the copy I bought off Ebay was turned off from Corel saying it was not legit. I no longer access to corel for saving or exporting files.

Need to run some parts for a client today, really need some help with this..

Thanks.

Import and export

Correct answer LaserEngravingPlus

Final conclusion - For future readers. As of January 2021, Using Corel 2020 and Adobe Illustrator 2020

Option 1 . If you still have acess to corel, export files in Corel as .AI files . Best option but time consuming.

Option 2. Use online converter websites. This was the option I went with, allowed me to upload them in batches keep the names. I exported them to .EPS files and was able to open/place in Adobe Illustrator. Used cloudconvert.com to perform this process.

Conclusion - Disappointed in Adobe for not allowing an easy import .cdr function, Corel has an easy .AI import function. The laser engraver only cares about RGB colors, mainly Black, Blue and Red. Scaling had to be adjusted after conversion.
Solved the problem. Thanks

LaserEngravingPlusAuthorCorrect answer

Inspiring

Final conclusion - For future readers. As of January 2021, Using Corel 2020 and Adobe Illustrator 2020

Option 1 . If you still have acess to corel, export files in Corel as .AI files . Best option but time consuming.

Option 2. Use online converter websites. This was the option I went with, allowed me to upload them in batches keep the names. I exported them to .EPS files and was able to open/place in Adobe Illustrator. Used cloudconvert.com to perform this process.

Conclusion - Disappointed in Adobe for not allowing an easy import .cdr function, Corel has an easy .AI import function. The laser engraver only cares about RGB colors, mainly Black, Blue and Red. Scaling had to be adjusted after conversion.
Solved the problem. Thanks

B

Bobby Henderson

Community Expert

Some years ago Adobe Illustrator had a CorelDRAW import filter. The capabilitiy was around for only a short amount of time because of bugs. There was one instance where I tried to open a CDR file directly in Illustrator and something happened that completely trashed my Illustrator installation. I had to uninstall and reinstall the whole Creative Suite (or Cloud) package in order for Illustrator to run again.

I use both CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator heavily. The two applications overlap each other with most features but then there are numerous other areas where the two have unique features or capabilities not found in the rival. It makes moving artwork between the two applications an adventure. CorelDRAW has grown better in its last couple or so versions at opening Illustrator files and exporting AI files that will open properly in Illustrator. But it's still not 100% accurate and may never be.

I have some ancient CorelDRAW CDR files; if I ever need to open them I have to use Inkscape to do that. The last few versions of CorelDRAW won't open CDR files made in version 5 or earlier. The newest version of Illustrator will open 30 year old AI files.

I'm somewhat concerned about the future of the CorelDRAW application. Version 2019 had some serious bugs. Version 2020 was better, but the only notable improvement was the addition of Variable Font support. I don't think Corel has the resources to release whole versions of CorelDRAW on an annual basis. They're not building up enough new features and improvements in a 12 month time span for the product to be worthy of a whole version number change, and the cost to users that goes along with it. Worse yet, maintenance updates have been few and far between. CorelDRAW 2020 has received only one point-release update and only one "hot fix" update. Compare that to three point-release updates for Illustrator CC 2020 and perhaps a dozen or more maintenance updates.

Corel has made some dubious business decisions lately. They did away with perpetual license upgrades. Later they raised their annual subscription and "upgrade protection" prices by $50. This is resulting in a lot of users staying put on older versions of the software. It seems pretty sensible considering the lack of new features and improvments in the newer versions. They're not worth the money. The hazard of sticking with an old version is Microsoft could come along and change something in Windows that prevents that old software from running.

I think Corel needs to go back to a 2 year product cycle with CorelDRAW. They need to bring back perpetual license upgrades and charge a fair price for them. Other lower cost rival drawing applications (Inkscape, Affinity Designer, Vectornator, etc) are continuing to improve. Corel isn't in the same league as Adobe and they're about to be caught in the middle by these newer, more affordable upstarts.

J

jabuHARVEY24557007

Participating Frequently

It all boils down to what each individual computer user needs. Not everyone needs a professional level tool set in a vector graphics application or an image editor. Not everyone has the budget for it either. Applications like Affinity Designer, Vectornator, etc fill that space.

I don't think I would recommend Inkscape to novice users trying to create vector graphics on a shoestring budget, but that's only because the user interface of Inkscape is not user friendly (and very dated in its style). Affinity Designer has a more attractive, more organized user interface. A newbie user will be able to find his way around that interface more easily.

In my own use case I need an "arsenal" of vector drawing applications on hand because I have to work with a lot of customer provided artwork. It's usually easier to fix any issues with customer provided artwork by working in the file's native application environment. The branding materials from big companies are almost always Adobe-flavored. The large format printing gear I use is oriented to handling Adobe-flavored files, such as PDFs from Illustrator. That makes it necessary for my workplace to use Creative Cloud regardless of my bias in favor of apps like Illustrator and Photoshop.

Freehand had its own unique strengths apart from Illustrator. In the mid-late 1990's I used Freehand a great deal because Adobe didn't bother releasing Windows versions of Illustrator 5, 5.5 and 6. I think Adobe's choice to do that helped CorelDRAW establish a pretty wide lead on the Windows platform. Freehand was a Postscript-based application like Illustrator; I could do things like copy/paste vector paths from Freehand into Photoshop just like I did with Illustrator.

Thanks for your response. I agree with your strategies and observations.
I think that having the key software for the many customer formats is key
(especially for native formats such as Affinity Deisgner's format, Corel
DRAW's format)...an encouraging trend I have seen is that all the
alternatives are making improvements to the "file exchange" aspects of
their apps.

Because I only want to use one or two "make-ready" apps I, therefore, tend
to view all input from the lens of common file formats for exchange :PDF,
EPS , TIF.

I have stuck to Illustrator mainly for dismantling/rebuilding customer work
(PDFs) but have also used it for generating my personal artistic
experiments.

I used to have to work almost exclusively with Illustrator,Freehand (input
stage) and Photoshop but
I have now moved to working mainly in Adobe Indesign for the high level
layout and "specialize"
with Illustrator, Incopy and Photoshop for those specific features and
edits required for the layout "ingredients".

Sincerely. Jabu HARVEY

Larry G. Schneider

Community Expert

The only that's going to work is if you have a working copy of CS5 (or CS6 with the Tensai extension). If you can post the file on a file-sharing site, maybe some one here will be able to do it on a one time basis.

LaserEngravingPlusAuthor

Inspiring

Hmm What is CS5 or CS6 ???

I might need to find a way to access Corel one last time then to export them as .eps files it seems.. What a nightmare Corel has been all the way to the end...

CarlosCanto

Community Expert

"Hmm What is CS5 or CS6 ??? "

Lollll, that's the previous marketing name, it was Creative Suite before it was changed to Creative Cloud.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

How many files are there?

If it's not dozens, please upload them on Dropbox or the like. I have CorelDRAW 2020 and could export them as AI files.

LaserEngravingPlusAuthor

Inspiring

Over a 100, was using Corel for a few years, till I finally got tired of it..

LaserEngravingPlusAuthor

Inspiring

Might need to over a trade with someone for some laser cutting time. Sounds like this is going to take a few hours... Thanks, disappointing on Adobe side, I can import .AI files into Corel.. It's not great but it works..

Corel being a nightmare all the way to the end... Thanks

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