CamDRAW Not Showing Under Tools in CorelDRAW

You ran the installer, it finished without an error, and CamDRAW is nowhere to be found in CorelDRAW. This is the most frequent question our support team gets, and in almost every case the plugin is installed correctly. CorelDRAW is simply showing you an old menu.

Why it happens

CorelDRAW saves its workspace, which includes the layout of menus, toolbars and dockers. That workspace is written when you close the program and loaded again at the next start.

If the workspace was saved before CamDRAW existed, it does not contain the menu entry. CorelDRAW loads the old layout, and the new add-on stays invisible even though its files are in place.

The fix: reset the workspace

1. Close CorelDRAW completely. Not just the document window. Check the taskbar to make sure no instance is still running.

2. Start CorelDRAW again and hold the F8 key while it loads. Press and hold it from the moment you launch the program until a message appears.

3. Confirm the prompt. A message asks whether you want to reset the workspace to its default settings. Confirm with Yes or OK.

4. Open the Tools menu. CamDRAW is now listed at the bottom, below the Macros entry. Click it to open the docker.

The docker appears on the right-hand side of the CorelDRAW window, under Add-ons. Drag its left edge to set a comfortable width.

Resetting the workspace restores CorelDRAW's default layout. Any custom toolbar arrangement you had set up is reset with it, which is worth knowing before you press F8, though for most users the default layout is what they were using anyway.

If the entry is still missing

Work through these in order.

Check which CorelDRAW version you opened. The installer writes into one CorelDRAW product at a time. On a machine with several versions installed it is easy to install into one and then open another. In CorelDRAW, go to Help and then About to see exactly which version and edition is running, and compare it with the product you selected during installation.

Check that CorelDRAW was closed during installation. The installer writes into the add-on directory inside CorelDRAW's program folder, and Windows blocks that while the program is running. The setup can appear to finish successfully and change nothing. Close CorelDRAW and run the setup again.

Check that the setup ran as administrator. Writing into Program Files requires elevated rights. Right-click the setup file and choose Run as administrator, then install again.

Check that the files are actually there. For a 64-bit CorelDRAW the folder is C:\Program Files\Corel<CorelDRAW version>\Programs64\Addons\CamDRAW 4, and for 32-bit it is C:\Program Files (x86)\Corel<CorelDRAW version>\Programs\Addons\CamDRAW 4. If the folder is empty or missing, the installation did not complete.

Check the .NET Framework. CamDRAW requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6 or higher. On an older Windows installation this may not be present.

Still nothing

If the folder contains the files, you are opening the right CorelDRAW version, and the workspace reset has been done, the cause is usually specific to the installation. Our support team helps by email and phone, and can look at unusual configurations directly. It helps if you can say which CorelDRAW version and edition you run, from Help and then About, and whether it is 32 or 64-bit.