Illustrator :: Editing SYMBOLS In LIBRARY To Change Multiple AI Files
Aug 27, 2013
Is there a way to use symbol libraries so that editing 1 symbol will ripple through and change several .ai files?
Our office has several people, working on several .ai files which all share symbols in common. We all know how to edit a local symbol and have it ripple through 1 document and change the artboards. We know how to save a library of symbols to share with others in the office. What we don't know is how to edit a symbol in that library and have it update everwhere.
If we can improve our process we can turn 1 day of work into 1 minute. I wish it worked like links in InDesign.
I am having a difficult time trying to create a new swatch libray of patterns from multiple png files. The way I am doing this is very slow and repetitive and seems silly for a tool as advanced as the latest CC suite including illustrator.
What it seems I must do is open all the png files in Illustrator, creating multiple workspaces, drag one png file into the swatch window, then save that window as a library, close the existing window to reveal the next png file, open the user library I just created, drag the next image into the currently active swatch window, then drag the previous swatch/s from the user library into the current active swatch window, resave and replace the user defined swatch library (now with two images in there)fromthe updated current active swatch panel/window, close the existing workspace to reveal the next image file, and then repeat the process again, slowly building the user defined swatch library up by adding one image at a time and then adding back into the Swatch panel the previously built up library of swatches again one at at time. (you can select all from the existing user defined library and drag over into swatch panel, but this creates at least one duplicate on each cycle for as soon as you click on the first swatch in the library, it adds itto the current swatch panel and then when you select all swatches to drag across it includes the first swatch and copies it again)
This is a very slow process to build up a swatch library. For some reason you cannot drag swatches directly into the user defined library you have created, only into the active swatch window for each workspace. I searched the web and forums for answers but could find none. There must be an easier way, just can't find it.
Ideally, the best option would be a swatch window option that allows the import directly from a list of selected files in the finder.
How do you edit the colors of the individual elements of symbols? Is there a way to do any editing once the objects have been added as a group as a symbol?
how to change the default square data points in a line graph. When I try to got to Object>Graph>Marker it is greyed out. When I click on a circle symbol and then try to go to Object>Graph>Design, it is greyed out. I am so frustrated trying to do the simplest things in this program. The online tutorials on how to make graphs do not seem to explain the simplest of tasks, only the difficult.
I've created a number of child symbols in a for loop for each of the data elements in my local json file. However, based on key pressed (up/down/right/left), css property of a particular child symbol only needs to be changed/highlight... how can i access an earlier created child symbol ?
What i'm trying to create is that based on arrow keys, i can select/highlight (by changing css property) a particular child element only. (similar to traversing cells in an excel sheet -top/down/right/left)..
When memory errors are occuring, which is the preferred method for repetitive objects: placing linked images or placing symbol instances? I'm using Windows XP and Illustrator CS5. I'm considering whether to create symbols for several of the often recurring placed images.
Lightroom v5.3: I'm a long time DNG file user for Pentax and Nikon cameras. I recently discovered that about 300 of my RAW Nikon files already imported into the Library are NEF files instead of DNG files as my other 5700 files are.
I know that I made an error somewhere along the way, but- Is there an easy solution to converting those existing NEF files to the DNG format?
When converting from LAB is it possible to change the default look up library from PANTONE Solid Coated to the Pantone+ Color Bridge Coated? Example: Set up a new job using all Pantone+ Color Bridge Coated. This creates all swatches as "Process Color" in CMYK Color Mode.
Client request is to have some Spot Colors.EXAMPLE: I take the "PANTONE 7408 CP" and rename it to "PANTONE 7408 C" change the color type to Spot Color and then close the window. Reopen the spot and change the Color Mode to book. All good now I have a PANTONE Solid Coated.
Client now decides to remove the Spot Color so I add the "P" back in the name and change the color mode back to CMYK. Now the break is;
Just installed X6. However, even though I installed Symbols and Objects from the content install, symbol manager does not see the symbols library on my hard drive. I guess it expects me to add a library, but where this symbols library is. Am I supposed to install the entire content package (I really don't want to clutter my hard drive with thousands of unwanted images) in order for symbol manager to be able to automatically find where the symbols are?
We have an engineer who uses AutoCAD LT 2014. He needs to use an electrical symbols library in AutoCAD so he can properly create the prints & drawings for machines, schematic edits, etc.
Looking for such a library/add-on for AutoCAD has been unsuccessfully. How to obtain electrical symbols for AutoCAD LT 2014?
I am in the middle of creating a library of symbols that I will need in a drawing. I have created around 10 symbols so far and I thought I'd insert them to see what they look like. When I drew them, all the lines were very smooth and they looked very neat but when I inserted them into the drawing they came out looking horrible with sharp lines and hatching going into areas which I closed off with boundaries. Also the text has changed on some of the symbols from the standard font to a very thin ugly looking font. A couple symbols which I have made into dynamic blocks no longer has the dynamic element to them so I cant stretch them as needed. Any know why this is happening? Or how to fix this?? When the symbols are being inserted it says "the definition has been changed"
I just create a few objects in the symbol manager, now I want to send those contents I createt to a friend. But I cannot find my library/symbols folder in the Corel Draw folders.
I am using Illustrator CC. My business partner is in CS6. When we save files to .pdfs or legacy versions, we lose the ability to use the character pallete. I can't change leading or use kerning tools. I am able to select the text box, and change letters, but that's it. I can't go in and select a line, and then change the leading. I can't select a line to change the kerning. When I open the version that my partner's worked on in CS6, I save it as a cc file. I'm not sure why we're losing all the editing capability. The box for "preserve Illustrator editing capabilities" is checked. We have always had different versions of Illustrator for the last 6 years we've worked together, and this hasn't ever been a problem.
When I went into LR4 just now I must have hit a button and all of my 700+ edited images from a specific collection started changing back to their original state. What did I push? How do I get them back without having to do it one by one in the history mode?
We have come across a problem using Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Illustrator CS6 on a MAC. We use Illustrator CS6 for putting together the graphics and use Photoshop CS6 for editing. When we save the image in full res and browse the image - the image looks grainy both on a Mac and a PC.
How to change the color of a bunch of files in an assembly easily? I don't want to open each file (70+) and change them manually only to find out there was an easier way to do it.
Inventor Professional 2013 (SP-2.3), Product Design Suite Ultimate Desktop: Intel Core i7 3.4GHz, 16.0 GB RAM, Windows 7 Ultimate SP-1, 64-bit OS, (2) GeForce GTX 580 (331.81), Space Pilot Pro (3.16.1) Laptop: Intel Core i7 3.9GHz, 16.0 GB RAM, Windows 7 Pro SP-1, 64-bit OS, GeForce GTX 780 (331.81), SpaceNavigator (3.17.7)
I have a user that is attempting to open multiple files at once in IllustratorCC. When you select multiple files and right click -> open, it only opens one file. If she double clicks a file while there is a file open in illustrator, nothing happens. The only way she has found to open multiple files is to go to file->open->browse to location for each file. This is quite time consuming. Is there anyway to enable being able to quickly open multiple files similiar to how older versions of Illustrator did?
I have around 300 Illustrator ai files I need to convert into PNG. They need to
have transparent background (not white)be 500x500 pxbe centered in the image (all of them aren't squared: if it's rectangular, it needs to be centered) How do I achieve this?
This script is supposed to open, modify, save, and close all files within a chosen folder.
There are a couple problems with the script The files are "legacy" .eps and .ai, so a save dialog pops up. I want to save the file and move on, suppressing dialogs if possibleOnly the first file is opened If I comment out the line inside the for loop that runs the convertToUncoated() function, all of the files will open. If there is a way to upload the test files I'll gladly do that.
How can I print mulitple different .ai files onto one page in Illustrator CS6? I have all of the files organized by Arrange Documents>Tile All in Grid and I would like to print the files in this format so that they can all be seen at once when printed out onto one page.
Some background is that I have 16 different cad drawings that I have converted and edited in illustrator. I'd like to basically make a contact sheet with all 16 drawings so that they can be reviewed on one sheet of paper after printing. But each drawing is in it's own unique file, and I have not figured out how to put them all onto one page for printing.
I'm trying to fix up the iproperties of a content centre item. However the part has been used before and saved in Vault. I have edited the library and then when I tried to use a part from the library, the part is just pulled from Vault, hence not having the edits on it. I tried a part that hasn't been used before and it works ok. How can I force it to rebuild from the content center so I can save over the copy in Vault?
I recently created an illustration where I need muliple colors on 1 document. I did a command + a to select all, then I went to object->live paint->make. After I added my colors I tried to change the opacity on a few of them, but the opacity for the entire document changes. Is there a way to get around this.....or do it right?
I have 30 Illustrator pdf files created in Illustrator 10 that I would like to transform into one Illustrator CS6 file with each file being a separate artboard. I would like to import them all at once and not have to do it one by one.
I work at a small company with multiple designers (5 of us) where 3 of us work remotely. We use dropbox to manage our files so that everyone has access--we keep client files in specific folders and stock media in a shared folder.
Currently whenever we open a file that's been edited by someone else, we have to go in and individually relink the files. Some would prefer to embed the files, however this can increase filesize by 60-400mb. Our current files total in at around 500gb, so I don't think that's a viable option.
4 of us are on Macs, 1 on Windows. 1 has CS5, 3 have CS6 and one has CC.
My question is this: If we all have the same path to dropbox (or the same path to the file, either way) will Illustrator be able to automatically find the files?
I created a action in Illustrator CS6 (on a PC) which opens PNG files, scales them onto a 8.5 x 11 page, saves them as a PDF into a output folder on my desktop and then closes the page. The action works great and does exactly what I had hoped for.
Here is my issue: I now have a need to do this on multiple files at the same time. Using the Illustrator Help menu, I found out about Batch processing. The tutorial says that a batch can be run on a single file or on a folder of files. Bingo! That's what I want. Problem is, I can't get it to work.
After setting up the batch with the following settings: (note: I didn't use a destination folder because I have the action saving the pdf into an output folder on the desktop).
According to the help page, it said to use Override Action "Open" commands which Opens the files from the specified folder and ignores any Open commands recorded as part of the original action. I thought this is what I needed to open all the files in the folder, because when recording my action, I had to use the open command to open a png file. It wouldn't just let me choose a folder. If I don't have the open command in the action, nothing happens.
My main issue is getting multiple files from within my input folder to open when running the action. The only file that opens is the file that I recorded while creating the action. If I remove that file from the folder, nothing happens at all.
