8 replies to this topic

[ELeFevre]

Is there anything I can to do to help prevent corrupt Illustrator files? A co-worker and I are working on a series of large maps (42" 72" around 250mb each with lot's of symbolized points) and we are almost finished. However, it is getting to the point where we can't save the .ai without it corrupting. Currently I'm at a stand- still (a show-down) with my machine... trying to save without any luck. I've tried saving a copy, save as, save as pdf, save, et cetera.

I've removed all unnecessary attribute data (MaPublisher), all un-used symbols and graphic styles, using lower res images and linking all images. What am I missing?

Do I need more computer power? My current machine;
Dell optiplex 620
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 3 GenuineIntel ~3391 Mhz
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 3 GenuineIntel ~3391 Mhz
Total Physical Memory 2,560.00 MB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 4.83 GB

Any advice would be great.

[Rob]

Erin, my heart bleeds for you....

I've run into similar problems, and like your situation, I don't think it's related directly to file size, because it seems like you probably have enough power to handle a 250mb file. What I've found to work in some situations, and I don't know why, is to save the file to a different directory, preferably one with a very short path and short file name, like C:\temp\stupidfile.ai

good luck,

rob

[benbakelaar]

Erin, based on my experience in IT, I'm not sure if this applies to you, but I guess it's worth mentioning. If any application in Windows freezes on a large file... opening... saving... exporting... etc. and your screen gets all choppy and blank, etc. that does not _necessarily_ mean the process has been interrupted. Often if you wait 5 minutes (or longer if you are patient enough) you will find everything back to normal. Now, also based on my experience, there are times when it simply freezes right away and no matter how long you wait, nothing will happen. But in my opinion, almost all applications running under Windows have trouble with "large" files (250mb to me counts as a large file). And also, just in case, don't work with large files over the network. If you must, make a local copy, work on it, and then copy back to the server.

[ELeFevre]

Erin, my heart bleeds for you....

What I've found to work in some situations, and I don't know why, is to save the file to a different directory, preferably one with a very short path and short file name, like C:\temp\stupidfile.ai

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Rob,
Thanks for the reply. Much appreciated. I'll give this a try and see what happens. Basically I've resorted to working from a back-up file I created on Monday. We suspect that the problem may be originating from an outer glow I had applied to the edge of the continental US (topo background image). Maybe applying a glow like this was a bad idea? thanks again.

[ELeFevre]

If any application in Windows freezes on a large file... opening... saving... exporting... etc. and your screen gets all choppy and blank, etc. that does not _necessarily_ mean the process has been interrupted. Often if you wait 5 minutes (or longer if you are patient enough) you will find everything back to normal. Now, also based on my experience, there are times when it simply freezes right away and no matter how long you wait, nothing will happen. But in my opinion, almost all applications running under Windows have trouble with "large" files (250mb to me counts as a large file). And also, just in case, don't work with large files over the network. If you must, make a local copy, work on it, and then copy back to the server.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the reply Ben. Instead of freezing and taking a long time to save...when the file corrupts it finishes saving in about 3 seconds. I can always tell when I get a good save because it will take much longer. Usually a couple of minutes. Also, I don't work from a network drive....but I do copy files back and forth between my C drive and a shared network drive.

[Matthew Hampton]

One other thing to try is to turn off all the layers before saving...

[Rick Dey]

Another thought from some experiences on this end is when doing a save as, turn off PDF compatibility, and try it with Compression off. Both of these can introduce some problems with very large files.

[mike]

One other thing to try is to turn off all the layers before saving...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i often work with some large AI files and have found this to work well. by turning off all layers, it prevents it from taking a long time to load when opening up the file. it also saves a little faster too.

[AlexKRE]

For restore lost or corrupted ai files you may use illustrator recovery. It has different facilities for resolving out almost every issues with illustrator files. The tool starts under all Windows OS and any system configuration.