A major update to the CorelDraw Technical
Suite X6
Designer was a
Micrografx product, until the company was swallowed up by the Corel Corporation
in 2001. Since then it has undergone a number of iterations, but this is the
first real update since 2010. As something of a bonus the latest version of The
Corel Technical Suite includes, Corel Designer X6, CorelDraw X6, Corel Photo
Paint X6, Corel Capture X6 and Corel Connect X6. Collectively making a pretty
powerful and cost effective graphic suite. Incidentally, once you’ve registered
the product you can also download Corel’s Web Creator X6, a fairly basic web
designer – but good enough for personal or small business users.
CorelDraw Technical Suite X6
With this release,
Corel has introduced a 64-bit version, allowing the applications to make use of
the extra memory addressing 64-bit systems can handle. Quite an important
upgrade given the extra power available from modern PCs.
Some 3D applications
don’t have the layout capabilities to create detailed technical drawings. Yet
the addition of the XVL Studio 3D to the Designer package, means you can load
3D drawing from many industry standard programs and import them directly. They
can be presented as line drawings, or full 3D rendered views and rotated or
scaled within the Designer interface. This makes it easy to create quite
complex technical drawings – with callouts, dimensions or enlarged detailed
sections – without using an external editor. If you have lots of CAD drawings
that, for example, need to be converted to illustrations suitable for a manual
or brochure, this is deal.
Producing multi-elevation technical
drawings, is much easier in this version of Designer
Of course Designer is
a comprehensive illustration product in its own right. The new version adds a
number of features to aid workflow. You can now use multiple trays within Corel
Connect to organize your assets from many different sources and projects.
Automatically making them available to all the major applications within the
suite. There’s also a completely new set of shape tools that are not generally
provided in CAD applications. They allow you to instantly draw threads,
threaded holes, cut-outs and bolt heads in isometric projection. You can also
scale all the dimensions in a drawing with a single click.
The integration of Corel’s Designer
Suite aids all elements of Design
The new Object Styles
Docker works on the same premise, allowing you at define a style consisting of
all the attributes applied to an object, and to then apply this style to other
objects is again just a single click. Color Harmonies is another new feature
that can apply instant color changes, while keeping the overall hue. It does
this by linking color styles into a hue based relationship, where for example a
range of blue-grey colors could be changed into the same hue range of
green-yellow. This could be useful if you wanted to highlight a section, or
component in an exploded view; effectively focusing on the relevant object. Or
to display a product in development in a range of colors, yet only having to
draw it once. Critics have often said that Designer had moved away from being
technical product it once was, but that is longer the case; Corel has listened
to its users and produced a version that offers more for the technical
illustrator. In addition, the bundling of CorelDraw X6 and the other
application in the suit makes it well a rounded and good value package.
With this release, Corel has introduced
a 64-bit version, allowing the applications to make use of the extra memory
addressing 64-bit systems can handle.
A good suite of design tool that produces
excellent results.
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Details
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Price: $1204.98
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Manufacturer: Corel
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Website: www.corel.com
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Required Spec: Windows 7, or 8 (32-bit or 64
bit), XP (32 bit) with all service parks installed. Intel P4, AMD Athlon 64
or AMD Opteron, 1GB RAM, 1.5 GB hard disk space (without extra content), 1024
x 768 screen
Ratings:
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Quality: 9/10
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Value: 9/10
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Overall/ 9/10
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