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Answered

Multiple artboards not saving as seperate .ai files

Forum|Forum|8 months ago
June 16, 2025
2 replies
4870 views

I created 18 artboards, each vary in detail. I then attempt to save each as a seperate .AI file:

File < Save as < Save as type (*.AI) < Save.

Illustrator Options - I check "Save each artboard to a seperate file" < All < OK.

The problem is that each artboard is not saving as a seperate file. Each seperate file contains all 18 artboards.

See screenshots. How do I correct this so that each artboard saves as a seperate .AI file?

How-to

Correct answer Ton Frederiks

Hi @Ton Frederiks , Apologies! please see attached file that has been saved with editing capabilites. I removed some artboards (from 16 to 9) because the oringal file exceeded the 47MB file size limit.

thank you for your patience!

Thanks Donnie,

I suppose that the additional artwork outside the artboards is caused because the artboards are so close together and the 3D effect somehow creates some (invisible) overlapping. Rearranging the artboards with 200 px space between them seems to solve the problem.

I think it is a good idea to split them, the file becomes quite heavy and slow with that many 3D objects.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Did you open the separate file? It may be just the preview.

D

donnie_1505Author

Inspiring

Hello Team,

I restarted my laptop and reopened the files and there was no change. I then created all the artboards again from scratch.

I would like to share the steps that I have taken to create multiple rows of artboards.

From the first artboard, I create two more artboards using the following steps: Ctrl+Shift+Click/Drag to create the 2nd and 3rd artboard. These are the first set of three.

I then select the 3 artboards and repeat the Ctrl+Shift+Click/Drag to create additional artboard rows.

I then modify the colors of each row of artboards.

NOTE: I do not ungroup but double click within the logo of each artboard to select the area I want to change. The reason I do this is because when I ungroup, the image will lose its 3D characteristics.

I then follow the ‘Save As’ steps I shared previously. When I open the saved .AI files, each has a different combination of artboards.

The format of each artboard are the same as the first one. I modify each row of artboards with different color configurations.

Reference Screenshots

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

I can replicate it when I have the content of all artboards grouped together.

Try it with a single group on each artboard.

Rene Andritsch

Community Expert

You checked the correct settings and this should correctly export just one artboard per file. Can you please state your operating system and Illustrator version? Try to restart your computer and try again as a first measure.

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