Participant

Question

Error message when using Make Pattern tool

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
August 14, 2025
6 replies
1550 views

I've used the "Make Pattern" hundreds of time before, but now when I select an object and click "Make Pattern" I only get an error message that says "Can't define a new pattern from the current art." The current art is litterally just an ellipse, nothing complicated. What am I missing here?

scggg

Participant

I think I have a super easy solution, if your issue is the same as mine was! This started happening to me yesterday as well and I searched high and low and could not figure out how to fix. And it turns out it was all because I had rearranged my workspace and the swatches panel was collapsed (I thought well I’m not working with color and wanted more space to see things - so it was open just collapsed into a column). If the swatches panel was collapsed and I clicked Pattern Make - it would force expand the swatches panel and display an error message “can’t create pattern from the current art.”

I then happened to try again when the swatches panel was expanded and it worked just fine. That is mentioned nowhere that the swatches panel is required to be fully expanded when clicking Pattern Make - but it was the issue!

Pheww!

K

Krisatu

Participant

I'm having the same problem on version 29.8.1 (Windows 11). The previous version could create patterns just fine. I tried version 28.7.9 and it worked fine too. So now my workflow is to create the pattern in 28.7.9 and copy it to 29.8.1, which is tedious.

Please fix this, Adobe.

Thank you.

HARSHIKA_VERMA

Community Manager

Hi Krisatu,

Thank you for reaching out, and sorry for the issue. Would you mind confirming if this happens only for live shapes without a stroke?
If so, there is a workaround provided in the comments of this UserVoice: try Object > Shape > Expand Shape.

Let us know if that helps, and feel free to leave a comment on the UserVoice if it resolves the issue.

Thanks,

Harshika

S

Sarah30011848xqz9

Participant

Thankyou Harshika!

I was having the exact same problem but oddly enough once I expanded the shape and changed the colour I was able to make my pattern.

P

Printy McPrint Print

Participant

I'm having the same exact issue. Tried it from a vector circle just like you and I get the same error.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

As already requested: Can you share the Illustrator file that has this issue?

P

Printy McPrint Print

Participant

For me, it isn't a specific file; it seems to be happening no matter what file I'm in. I wasn't able to attach the AI file, hopefully a PDF will work.

Dot_AI_File.pdf

Ares Hovhannesyan

Community Expert

It work's for me.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @robs656 & @aliraea87401023,

Thanks for sharing the details and the screenshot. I tried reproducing this on my end but wasn't able to replicate the issue. Could you confirm which version of Illustrator and OS you're using, and also let us know if this happens only in an existing file or even when you create a brand-new document? If the issue persists in new files as well, it may be related to corrupted preferences. In that case, please try resetting Illustrator preferences after backing them up.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

A

aliraea87401023

Participating Frequently

Hi Abhishek, thanks for your response. Yes, it's happening with both existing files and brand new files. Unfortunately, resetting Illustrator preferences didn't solve the issue. Any other ideas?

A

aliraea87401023

Participating Frequently

If it helps to know, as a temporary workaround I am able to duplicate and edit existing pattern swatches through the Pattern Options window. So pattern swatches are working, but Illustrator refuses to create any new pattern swatches.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

Can you share the Illustrator file that has this issue?

A

aliraea87401023

Participating Frequently

I'm having the same problem and it's happening with every file of any size, with any art. Any idea on what could be causing this? I'd rather not upload any files here.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

@aliraea87401023 schrieb:

I'm having the same problem and it's happening with every file of any size, with any art. Any idea on what could be causing this? I'd rather not upload any files here.

So when you create a new file, draw a rectangle, fill and stroke that with a default red swatch and then go to Object > Pattern > Make. You get an error?

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