Why can't I bring in Illustrator (.ai) content natively?

[NewMavens]

Adobe owns Illustrator. Adobe owns Captivate. Why can't Captivate bring in a native Illustrator file? Seems crazy to be forced to export to SVG from Illustrator before bringing a graphic into Captivate. Native .ai file support should be a no-brainer! You already have SVG round-tripping to Illustrator built in. Why not provide native .ai support as well?

[Lilybiri]

Because Captivate is basically a bitmap application, not a vector application. Even SVG import is a pretty new feature, and you have roundtripping with Illustrator. Exporting SVG assets from Illustrator really doesn't take a lot of time at all with the Export Assets panel.

Native PSD files cannot be used neither, although there is a nice roundtripping whih allows you to convert layers to PNG images and keep the link with the source PS file.

Support for bitmap images in Illustrator is not that good as well. Captivate, a much smaller application (in number of user), seems to need all features of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Audition, Animate  and some features of Premiere, After Effects and Acrobat as well. I am not kidding, just bit sarcastic when seeing all the features that users seem to expect in Captivate because it is an Adobe app. Feel free to launch a feature request. Here is the link:

Adobe Captivate

[NewMavens]

Exporting SVG assets from Illustrator really doesn't take a lot of time at all with the Export Assets panel.

Yes, but it's an extra step that really shouldn't be necessary.

Captivate, a much smaller application (in number of user), seems to need all features of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Audition, Animate  and some features of Premiere, After Effects and Acrobat as well. I am not kidding, just bit sarcastic when seeing all the features that users seem to expect in Captivate because it is an Adobe app.

Well, no, I don't want (nor expect) to see Illustrator functionality in Captivate, because I have Illustrator. But I don't think it's to much to ask to see native file import support between two applications from the same company (Illustrator has no problem bringing in Photoshop files and vice versa despite one being a vector app and the other being a raster app). I use an illustration program on Mac (Affinity Designer) that supports opening/importing native Adobe .ai files, and it's not even an Adobe application. Captivate should at the very least be able to do the same. Then again, Captivate seems to remain perpetually on the fringe of Adobe's territory, as if they're just a side project Adobe isn't much interested in.

I'll submit a feature request.

[Lilybiri]

Captivate is already a very complicated application. Why need to embed the conversion functionality from the raw AI file to SVG, to PNG and other image formats in Captivate, when it is already available in Illustrator? Both PS and AI have improved the work flow to export assets tremendously in recent versions.  I would also like to see all functionality in one application, but it would become such a monster... The Captivate team do listen to the users, believe me. They have to look for a balance however.  Did you try the roundtripping witg Illustrator?

[NewMavens]

Did you try the roundtripping witg Illustrator?

Yes, the roundtripping works fine. Would just prefer to see the elimination of the requirement to output to SVG from Illustrator before bringing into Captivate. It makes the roundtripping clunkier than it needs to be. Just choose Media > Illustrator, done (or better yet Media > SVG/Illustrator and accommodate either file type with one click).

[Mike Witherell]

Just updating this thread in March, 2021: no direct support for native Illustrator .ai files yet!

[Lilybiri]

Since my answers here I have a lot more experience with AI files.

Captivate cannot use a native AI, nor a native PS file, because it needs compressed images. The PS roundtripping is very logical, since the main output of PS is to bitmap images, and the most feature-rich compressed format is PNG. The layer structures and comps in PS are also very logical to set up. However AI is a lot more complicated, since it can have output to bitmap and to vector compressed files. Moreover its layer structure is rather.... will be polite .... chaotiic. To set up a roundtripping like with PS source files would probably need to put a very strict requirement list to the AI creator. 

Output to SVG assets is wel done in AI, the output from PS to SVG is possible but seldom leads to the same quality. 

Collaboration with Audition is easy, with Photoshop is well done in Captivate, I suspect it is rather difficult with AI files from its present situation. Artboards do not make it easier neither.