Inspiring

Answered

Pattern Brushes On Line Unselectable?

Forum|Forum|1 month ago
July 8, 2026
26 replies
115 views

Hi everybody, I’ve got a file with lines with pattern brushes on like in this attachment. However, the file with these in has stopped allowing you to select the line. Therefor, you can’t select the line any more to turn the pattern brush off or to modify anchor points in the shape.

In image 1 the line is selected and can be modified but in image two the line in the shape is not selected or selectable. It has just selected all the shapes within the pattern brush. I can’t select the line in that shape any more! I could just make the line again when I want to edit it but that would be annoying and waste time.

Thanks for your help,
Gareth

Correct answer Monika Gause

@Gareth_Williams They normally stay in the file. That is the default behaviour. If they don’t, then saving files must be fundamentally flawed on your machine.

So if you are not saving them as EPS or PDF without embedding an AI file or the saving process itself is rotten, then probably you need to try resetting the preferences or maybe even reinstalling Illustrator.

“Save in background” is off?

You are saving to the internal hard disk?

The disk is OK?

Sorry if I have already asked that, but I do not remember the details of this discussion.

Gareth_WilliamsAuthor

Inspiring

OK, save in background is now off. Is there anything else in this dialogue box that I should have set differently? Thanks again.

Gareth_WilliamsAuthor

Inspiring

OK, save in now background is off. Is there anything else in this dialogue box that I should have set differently? Thanks again.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

in the screenshot Save in background is still turned on. You can turn off Export in background as well, but it will not interfere with saving.

All the other things are not known to interfere with stuff. Remember to not rely on Recovery alone. It might fail.

Gareth_WilliamsAuthor

Inspiring

Save in background is tuned off now. I did the screenshot before I tuned it off. That doesn’t make any difference anyway. I can work with them expanding for now and I will reinstall illustrator when there is a new version to see if that solves it. Thanks again.

Gareth_WilliamsAuthor

Inspiring

Ok, I’m back from holiday. Sorry about the interruption! The file that I make and save the brushes in has all the brushes I’ve made in the brushes pallet permanently. These never disappear and the shapes in this file never expand. However, in other files that I have imported the brushes into, the imported brushes disappear from the brushes panel and the shapes they are used on expand. That’s what’s happening but is there a way of importing the brushes into a file and keeping them in there permanently so the shapes do not expand?

Thanks again for your help,

Gareth_WilliamsAuthor

Inspiring

Ok, I’m back from holiday. Sorry about the interruption! The file that I make and save the brushes in has all the brushes I’ve made in the brushes pallet permanently. These never disappear and the shapes in this file never expand. However, in other files that I have imported the brushes into, the imported brushes disappear from the brushes panel and the shapes they are used on expand. That’s what’s happening but is there a way of importing the brushes into a file and keeping them in there permanently so the shapes do not expand?

Thanks again for your help.

Gareth_WilliamsAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks Monika/Ton, I think the issue is the user defined brushes to not stay in the brushes window after importing them. I will investigate this later. I am going on a short holiday tomorrow until Thursday. When I come back I will continue to investigate. Thanks again.

Gareth_WilliamsAuthor

Inspiring

The brushes automatically disappear from the brushes Window. That’s probably why the shapes expand. When I open the file next time, the user defined pattern brushes that I imported are gone from the brushes window. I have uploaded the file in which I made the pattern brushes. Can you get them from this file?

PatternBrushes.ai

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Thank you. I cannot reproduce the behaviour (except when I save as PDF without Illustrator editability of course). But saving on the harddisk, in the Cloud, even with “Save in background” turned on does not produce this issue.

Probably you can try and reset the Illustrator preferences?

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

@Gareth_Williams Where do you save your files? On your hard disk? External disk, cloud folder? I tried a simple brush in 2025. The only time it would expand the brush is when you remove it from the Brushes panel. Since they are somehow not in the Brushes panel in your file, they get expanded.

Do you see your custom brushes in: Users > your username > Library > Application Support > Adobe > Adobe Illustrator 29 > language folder > Brushes

Gareth_WilliamsAuthor

Inspiring

Yeah, thanks Ton, you’re right. My user defined brushes are vanishing from the brushes window in the file and every file. We’re looking into this now! Thanks again.

Gareth_WilliamsAuthor

Inspiring

Ok, so I think it expands automatically, so my solution is keeping a copy of the original shape on a different layer before adding the pattern brush. That way if I need to modify the shape I’ve still got the original with the editable anchor points.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

The bottom one looks like the brush has been expanded. Can you tell us your steps?

Gareth_WilliamsAuthor

Inspiring

It shouldn’t have been expanded. I didn’t do anything to it. It happened by itself. I will investigate and see if I can work out what might have happened.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Can you please tell us the steps you have done?

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