ai file trouble

[Margaret Turco]

I had a customer send me an ai postscript file and when I try to import into corel, it closes the program. I did ask him to send in another format, but thought I would ask here to see if any of you have a suggestion for me.

[Doug Griffith]

There are a few things it could be but if you want, post the image here and I'll convert it to a readable format for you.

Some possibilities:
A newer version of AI that your version of Corel doesn't like.
Embedded items such as images that have bad links.
Too many nodes from meshes or the like.
Defective fonts that have not been converted to outlines.

Cheers,
Doug

[Scott Shepherd]

Doug, it gave me an error when I tried to open it telling me something about links. Glad you said that, that explains it. I'm assuming there were some linked objects into this file and they didn't come over. When I opened it, it was empty, no objects on any layer (only one layer).

I've got CS4, so I should have been able to open it, but sounds like it might be the link problem.

[Margaret Turco]

I had somebody try to open in ai and it looks like a bum file so I'll wait for my customer to reply tomorrow. Thanks for trying to help!

[Doug Griffith]

When placing images in Illustrator, there is an option to keep it as a link (like DTP apps where it is kept as a separate file). If the option is not selected, the image is embedded into the file. This is what Corel users want.

Sometimes a fresh Illustrator file can be created and then the offending Illustrator file can be placed into it. From there, go to the "links" window, and use the pull down in the up right corner. There is an option to show missing files.

Another thing that helps when saving Illustrator files for Corel is to select all and Object:Expand Appearance. This will convert fancy brush strokes, boolean pathfinder functions, and other Illustrator idiosyncracies to something more compatible.

Cheers,
Doug