Corel user input needed

[custom sign center]

I'm using Corel X6 with Windows XP Pro. Been using Corel since Corel 9. I'm not going to claim to be a know it all because I'm always learning new things, that's part of the enjoyment of this line of work but I'm no spring chicken either.

I've noticed a very weird thing. I have the worst problems whenever someone sends me something created from Adobe Indesign.

Today I had a problem generating a JPEG when exporting a proof for a banner. I finally had to just put it into a PDF to get it to the customer. Yesterday Corel was displaying a LOW MEMORY error and crashed twice on a different file from a different customer.
Again today it did the same thing on the file I had problems generating the JPEG on. Had no problem generating JPEG's for any other files I was working on....just that one. The thing in common here is both customers sent logo files from Indesign. These files are super simple, no effects, drop shadows, transparencies or anything like that.

I keep all my customer files on an external 3 terabyte HD and only a 65GB of it is used. My computer HD is 500GB with 115GB used. I have more than the minimum requirements to run Corel and I don't have a bunch of programs cluttering up my computer.
Everything else has been working fine and dandy. Honestly no problems at all.

I know absolutely nothing about Indesign except it's an Adobe product and our local College instructor seems to teach it.

I'm just wondering if there's any other Corel users having similar or strange issues. Maybe it's some setting or something I'm unaware of????

Thanks

 

[WildWestDesigns]

If it's the latest and "greatest" InDesign file then that could be contributing to your issue. I think with X6, it can handle CS5 files alright, but any newer then that might be having a view issues with it.


However, having said that, I don't think indd files are one of the files that's listed for direct opening or importing into DRAW. At least from what I can see with my X6.

EDIT: I just tried plain opening and importing an indd file and it says it was unsupported file format. I don't know how you are getting it to run on your version of Corel.

 

[letterman7]

I frequently have issues with X6 and low memory, regardless of a .jpg file generated from other sources or simply a large .cdr file. I try to clear my cache once a week if I remember, but it doesn't always work. For some reason this version of Corel seems to be a resource hog and can't handle more than one file or page open at a time.

 

[SignManiac]

I'm running x6 64bit version on win7 ultimate. I always have a minimum of ten to fifteen files open all at the same time with no issues. I don't think it's a Corel problem.

 

[Joe Diaz]

It may be time to look at upgrading your system. XP is a great OS, but it is old. X6 will work on XP but really its designed to work even better on newer versions of Windows, especially 64bit versions. Since you are getting memory errors, I wonder how much memory you have??? I think if you are using XP the most you can actually use would be 4GB (actually it's more like 2GB in CorelDRAW itself). 4GB should do the trick but Corel runs really well on a system with 64bit OS and I would recommend 8GB of memory. Mine at work has 16GB and it flies. I'm pretty sure I'm not able to use all of that 16GB in Corel, however every little bit is helpful when I have multiple applications running at once.

Also are you exporting to the external drive? It's not a huge deal if you are, but you may have better luck exporting to an internal drive.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

It may be time to look at upgrading your system. XP is a great OS, but it is old. X6 will work on XP but really its designed to work even better on newer versions of Windows, especially 64bit versions.

XP Pro did come in a 64bit version.

 

[Joe Diaz]

XP Pro did come in a 64bit version.

Missed the "Pro" part of the OP's post. That being said XP pro came in 32bit too. So it depends on which one they have and how much memory they are working with... If they are getting memory errors, I would assume that would be the best place to start when solving this issue.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Missed the "Pro" part of the OP's post. That being said XP pro came in 32bit too. So it depends on which one they have and how much memory... but if they are getting memory errors, I would assume that would be the best place to start when solving this issue.

True, but I've gotten memory errors as well (not with Corel or Ai though) on a 64bit system and typically it's related to temp memory (cache etc), not so much RAM. That could be an issue as well, but I would think along the lines of what letterman7 said first.

 

[Joe Diaz]

True, but I've gotten memory errors as well (not with Corel or Ai though) on a 64bit system and typically it's related to temp memory (cache etc), not so much RAM. That could be an issue as well, but I would think along the lines of what letterman7 said first.

Yeah but he's saying he has memory issues and has problems having more than one file open at a time. This has not been my experience at all, In fact, I have 12 .cdr files open right now, some of which are pretty complicated projects running next to a few other rather large applications. SignManiac said he's not having problems with multiple files either. So I'm wondering what systems the OP and Letterman7 are working with. That's all.

I've generally found that you are going to run into issues running new software on an OS that is more than 12 years old. That's why I suggest considering the upgrade, especially if you aren't utilizing 64bit yet.

 

[custom sign center]

It may be time to look at upgrading your system. XP is a great OS, but it is old. X6 will work on XP but really its designed to work even better on newer versions of Windows, especially 64bit versions. Since you are getting memory errors, I wonder how much memory you have??? I think if you are using XP the most you can actually use would be 4GB (actually it's more like 2GB in CorelDRAW itself). 4GB should do the trick but Corel runs really well on a system with 64bit OS and I would recommend 8GB of memory. Mine at work has 16GB and it flies. I'm pretty sure I'm not able to use all of that 16GB in Corel, however every little bit is helpful when I have multiple applications running at once.

Also are you exporting to the external drive? It's not a huge deal if you are, but you may have better luck exporting to an internal drive.

I'm glad you mentioned this. I was actually going to PM you and ask what you had for memory, ect.

I really haven't had any problems up until the last couple of days and perhaps it's just a coincidence that both times were on files that originated in Indesign.

As far as exporting to the external drive. No, I only save the files to the external. I actually have my files backed up to a couple of external and another computer....I know, LOL. that is because I'm paranoid after losing lots of hard work when I had a Hard drive go belly up on a computer. Better safe than sorry.

 

[letterman7]

It's very possible that my issues are computer related. I have XP64, but not the Pro version and the computer is older, though I believe it has 8Gb of RAM. All my Corel files are on a separate 2TB hard drive for storage, I work off the main drives for the design end. I'm using the Windows paging file at 12KMb for a little extra, but I reckon I should install a few more RAM chipsets if I've got the space on the platform.

 

[custom sign center]

I frequently have issues with X6 and low memory, regardless of a .jpg file generated from other sources or simply a large .cdr file. I try to clear my cache once a week if I remember, but it doesn't always work. For some reason this version of Corel seems to be a resource hog and can't handle more than one file or page open at a time.

I haven't had a problem with only being able to have one file open at a time. It depends on my workload but I usually have at least 3 open. The only other programs I have open is my RIP program & e-mail.

 

[Joe Diaz]

I'm glad you mentioned this. I was actually going to PM you and ask what you had for memory, ect.

I really haven't had any problems up until the last couple of days and perhaps it's just a coincidence that both times were on files that originated in Indesign.

As far as exporting to the external drive. No, I only save the files to the external. I actually have my files backed up to a couple of external and another computer....I know, LOL. that is because I'm paranoid after losing lots of hard work when I had a Hard drive go belly up on a computer. Better safe than sorry.

LOL I hear ya.

Talking about Paranoid, We save to a NAS, which is backed up on Carbonite, Then we also make backups to these mini drives that plug right into the NAS like the old school tape backups. We too have had a hard drive with all of our art files die on us, luckily at the time we were using carbonite, so we got the majority of it back.

But since we are on the subject I have noticed that exporting to that NAS or anywhere else on the network, and especially an external hd takes longer then when you export to an internal drive, which makes sense if you think about it, but I wonder if the process of exporting something externally also takes more resources.... I don't know. May not make a huge difference but it could help a little.

 

[custom sign center]

LOL I hear ya.

Talking about Paranoid, We save to a NAS, which is backed up on Carbonite, Then we also make backups to these mini drives that plug right into the NAS like the old school tape backups. We too have had a hard drive with all of our art files die on us, luckily at the time we were using carbonite, so we got the majority of it back.

But since we are on the subject I have noticed that exporting to that NAS or anywhere else on the network, and especially an external hd takes longer then when you export to an internal drive, which makes sense if you think about it, but I wonder if the process of exporting something externally also takes more resources.... I don't know. May not make a huge difference but it could help a little.

Ha! Glad to hear I'm not the only paranoid one. I like the idea of the NAS AND Carbonite!

I too, have noticed it takes longer to save to external sources. Not my external drive so much but I had Dropbox syncing with my computer and tablet, boy did that slow things down so I took it off my work computer.
I have thought of Carbonite in the passed. Are you pretty happy with that?

I am running 32bit but it's a good time to upgrade to a new computer, should be able to find a decent buy since it's the end of the year. Not thrilled with Windows 8 but I'll adapt.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Ha! Glad to hear I'm not the only paranoid one. I like the idea of the NAS AND Carbonite!

We use QNap NAS and it works really well for not just backup, but for other applications as well. My mom uses Carbonite (heavy Photoshop user) and she loves it. Been with them for a few yrs, but she also backups locally as well.

I too, have noticed it takes longer to save to external sources. Not my external drive so much but I had Dropbox syncing with my computer and tablet, boy did that slow things down so I took it off my work computer.

Syncing to a local server (such as a QNap etc) shouldn't too terribly long. If you are connected via ethernet. If you are using wireless, then that might be a different story.

I am running 32bit but it's a good time to upgrade to a new computer, should be able to find a decent buy since it's the end of the year. Not thrilled with Windows 8 but I'll adapt.

You should be able to buy Win 7 disks. If you do a custom build computer this shouldn't be a problem to do.

I have Win 8.1 Pro (I wish I just stuck with 8.0 and not have done that big upgrade, it really wasn't necessary in my opinion) on my Cintiq tablet and I really like the OS. Very intuitive. I hear people claiming a week or two to adjust and I just don't see it unless they are using a non-touch screen device. Then I can totally understand, but for a touch screen monitor it really is a good OS. If you aren't running touch screens on your desktop though, I would see about putting Win 7 on that.

 

[SignBurst PCs]

I really try to stay away from online backups for graphics. The files are larger than most and can take a while to upload to the cloud. Downloads are better than uploads (in general), but are still relatively slow in the event that you run into a catastrophic failure on your storage device and need to restore the entire backup. I guess that it really depends on how much data you are backing up though. If it isn't a huge amount, you may be OK. I really try to direct folks to a good NAS and then make sure they backup their NAS to external drives (or another NAS) to take offsite.

If memory serves, the only 64 Bit version of XP was Pro. But even if you do have XP Pro 64 Bit, you are likely to have older hardware. Hardware 4 or 5 years ago isn't the same as it is now. We have seen DRASTIC improvements in performance in the last 3 years.

Windows 7 is still available. As a matter of fact, MS just changed their mind on the date that they were going to stop selling Windows 7. I think that they removed the date all together as Windows 7 is still growing in market share faster than Windows 8 is. CorelDRAW X6 runs very well on our Windows 7 systems.

You are going to have a longer save time on NAS devices than on internal drives being that it has to travel across Ethernet.

Internal drives (or eSATA) drives are going to give you the best performance.

Wireless is useless when transferring files in my opinion. This may change in the future, but for now, get a cable.

USB2 external drives are fairly slow and I wouldn't work off of one unless absolutely necessary.

USB3 drives are considerably faster than USB2 (if connected to a blue USB3 port) and can really make a difference.

eSATA connections are also very fast (just like an internal drive) but they can be harder to find on external drives than USB3.

But back to the original question, low memory errors aren't always RAM related. They can very well be hard disk, SSD, or cache related. A hard drive that is failing or almost full can throw errors like that. You don't seem to be running into capacity problems, so Is your Corel updated? Are you opening PDFs created in InDesign or native InDesign files? I wasn't aware that you could open native InDesign files in CorelDRAW.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

If memory serves, the only 64 Bit version of XP was Pro. But even if you do have XP Pro 64 Bit, you are likely to have older hardware. Hardware 4 or 5 years ago isn't the same as it is now. We have seen DRASTIC improvements in performance in the last 3 years.

XP Pro 64bit also had it's own shortcomings too if I remember correctly. I never was a fan of XP and wanted to get away from it as soon as I could.

Windows 7 is still available. As a matter of fact, MS just changed their mind on the date that they were going to stop selling Windows 7. I think that they removed the date all together as Windows 7 is still growing in market share faster than Windows 8 is. CorelDRAW X6 runs very well on our Windows 7 systems.

I think Win 7 is the new XP.

Wireless is useless when transferring files in my opinion. This may change in the future, but for now, get a cable.

On some devices (Cintiq tablet) don't have much of a choice in the matter. It's slower then even ethernet, but both are negligible in my opinion, but I also don't have the huge wrap files. The worse files for size are our Blender files, but that's about it.

But back to the original question, low memory errors aren't always RAM related. They can very well be hard disk, SSD, or cache related. A hard drive that is failing or almost full can throw errors like that. You don't seem to be running into capacity problems, so Is your Corel updated? Are you opening PDFs created in InDesign or native InDesign files? I wasn't aware that you could open native InDesign files in CorelDRAW.

I can't open native indd files (CS5) in X6, so I don't know how the OP is doing it unless they sent him PDF files exported from the original indd file. Also, since the OP is running external drives, those could be failing as well and that would throw Windows in a tizzy as well. Some don't think of external drives doing that, but it's possible and those do have a shorter life span then your internals.

 

[Joe Diaz]

I really try to stay away from online backups for graphics. The files are larger than most and can take a while to upload to the cloud. Downloads are better than uploads (in general), but are still relatively slow in the event that you run into a catastrophic failure on your storage device and need to restore the entire backup. I guess that it really depends on how much data you are backing up though. If it isn't a huge amount, you may be OK.

One of the Carbonite memberships plans has a service where they will take your content copy it to an external HD then ship it to you in case of catastrophic storage failure. Ask us how we know. It was going to take more than a year to download all of our backed up files (over 800 GB) so we were happy this service was available. That being said I like the all-of-the-above approach. NAS, internal backups and online backup.