Participant

Answered

Swatch pattern in my CAD reduces scale when I copy and paste it into another illustrator document. Sometimes the actual CAD itself will also shrink. How do I stop this from happening?

Forum|Forum|1 month ago
February 24, 2026
17 replies
681 views

When I copy and paste my CAD/shape from one illustrator document to another, the scale of the swatch pattern in the CAD/shape gets smaller.

I have checked the document settings and everything seems to be the same.

What could be causing this?

Correct answer Anubhav M

Hello everyone,

We are sorry for the trouble. Our team is currently investigating the issue. We will update this thread as we have more information. You can also stay tuned to the UserVoice (https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/51042046-swatch-pattern-reduces-scale-when-copied-from-one).

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have more questions or need assistance. We’d be happy to help.
Anubhav

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Stephanie33526364ua87

Participant

fashion designer here, this is a huge problem because you need a pattern to remain fixed in size in relation to the shirt (as an example) that it's going on, and you need it to stay fixed as you copy and paste that shirt into multiple documents, so that others (buyers, salespeople, factory) see the pattern/shirt exactly as you intended it. this has never been a problem in the past, but now I'm spending hours per style to manually fix each file as the shirt gets pasted into it. this involves way too many steps that I shouldn't have to take, and opens the door for error. This needs to be fixed NOW, totally unacceptable.

Fay_F

Participant

I am having the same issue - I updated to 30.2.1 two weeks ago and have only had the problem since then. I will try reverting to 30.1 as suggested but I hope it’s resolved soon!

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @Fay_F

I’m sorry to hear you’re having similar trouble with Illustrator. Could you share more details, such as the version of the OS installed, a link to a sample file, and screenshots/a brief screen recording of the problem, so we can check this with the team?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

Fay_F

Participant

Thanks @Anubhav M -

I was on version 30.2.1 but have since reverted to 30.1 as suggested on this thread I am not having the issue any longer so it seems to be a problem with the later version(s).

The attached screenshot shows the original file next to the same pattern filled object when copied & pasted into a new document in 30.2.1 plus the original pattern swatch - you can see that it doesn’t even revert to the original size/angle, it just makes the pattern tiny and removes the angle.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you need anything else. Thanks!

Kpdx22

Participant

I was also having this issue (I also do fashion CAD work)- revert back to Illustrator version 30.1 if you’ve updated to 30.2.1.

No issue in 30.1, so seems to be an issue from the recent update.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

@Jessica3148802598wd @kmassis @Jennifer2026 This looks like a bug to me. Can you report it at UserVoice, where the Illustrator team is watching for bugs and feature requests?

And then give the link to the report here so that people know where to add their votes.

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/

Jessica3148802598wdAuthor

Participant

Ohh! Okay I’ve just posted in UserVoice. This is the link:

(first time doing this so hope I have done it right!)

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/51042046-swatch-pattern-reduces-scale-when-copied-from-one

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Thanks Jessica, I voted!

kmassis

Participant

Having the same issue here, it just started this week - it’s a real problem since we do fashion CADs and we’re constantly copy and pasting vectors with pattern fills from one file to another. And the scale of the patterns are a crucial part of the design specifications so being able to keep it consistent is quite literally a business need.

We’ve already double checked the Settings and nothing has changed on our end. There doesn’t seem to be a solution other than having to manually re-size every time we paste into a new file.

Adobe - a bug fix / solution would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Jennifer2026

Participant

Following as I am having this issue too. It just started happening on Monday.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

It could be caused by the difference between a Large Canvas document and a Regular Canvas document. You can check if it is a Large or a Regular Canvas document by zooming in and out as much as you can and look at the percentage.

A Large Canvas can zoom out to 0,31% and zoom in to 6400%
A Regular Canvas can zoom out to 3,13% and zoom in to 64000%

Jessica3148802598wdAuthor

Participant

Hi Ton, I have just checked the canvas sizes by zooming in and out, and they both appear to be the Regular canvases :/

In one of my documents I’m using A3 artboards, and the other is A4 artboards. Could this be causing it?

I feel like i haven’t had this issue before with different size artboards

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Hi Jessica, thanks for checking, but mixing A3 and A4 should not give problems.

Can you share an example file with a pattern that shrinks when pasted into a new document? A file with just the pattern will do. You can use the paperclip symbol to attach a file to the forum post.

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