Participant

Question

Can't see or create art-board on new or old docs

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
October 13, 2017
6 replies
3399 views

Hello,

I've just installed (and then reinstalled) Illustrator on my new computer, and it struggles opening or creating new or old files.

I can't see anything, just blank, as if there is no dartboard or elements. Sometime i'm unable to see ai files, but sometime I do, I don't know why some work and others don't.

Attached is a print-screen of what I see after it creates a new document.

Appreciate any help!

Thanks

Irit

illustrator

This topic has been closed for replies.

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Thank you for your kind words, ful.

The list has been a bit further developed (the first version was maybe 15 years ago); the following is the current full version with a few parts normally only included in special cases:

THE LIST

If things that should work simply refuse to (all possibilities exhausted including the A) - D) below (and carefully making sure you are performing (all) the needed things)), you may try (the relevant part(s) of) the list 1) - 8 ) below.

Sometimes, (certain) things may fail or stop working for no apparent reason. When the (other) possible reasons/cures fail to work, it may be some kind of (temporay or permanent) corruption, or even some inconvenient preference setting(s), which may be cured with something on the following list set up in an attempt to provide a catchall solution for otherwise unsolvable cases. It starts with a few easy and harmless suggestions 1) - 3) for milder cases, and goes on with three alternative ways 4) - 6) of resetting preferences to the defaults (easily but irreversibly and more laboriously but more thoroughly and also reversibly), then follows a list 7) of various other possibilities, and it ends with a full reinstallation 8 ). If no other suggestions work, or if no other suggestions appear, you may start on the list and decide how far to go and/or which may be relevant.

The following is a general list of things you may try when

A) The issue is not in a specific file,

B) You have a printer correctly installed, connected, and turned on if it is physical printer (you may use Adobe PDF/Acrobat Distiller as the default printer with no need to have a printer turned on, obviously you will need to specify when you actually need to print on paper), and

C) It is not caused by issues with opening a file from external media.

D) It is not caused by other applications (you may close down/disable everything else running, including browsers and antivirus, then try again). There are quite a few usual suspects that may disturb and confuse Illy (job description Adobe Illustrator) so she moves in mysterious ways (even more than usual, some would say).

You may have tried/done some of them already; 1) and 2) and 3) are the easy ones for temporary strangenesses, and 4) and 5) and 6) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt/inconvenient preferences); 7) is a list in itself, and 8 ) is the last resort.

If possible/applicable, you should save current artwork first, of course.

1) Close down Illy and open again;

2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to at least 5 times);

3) Log out of your Adobe account and log back in;

4) Close down Illy, then close down al other applications, then open Illy again;

5a) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);

5b) Or in the current CC version click Reset Preferences at the bottom right of the Preferences window and restart (also easy but irreversible);

6a) Move the folder (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible), for CS3 - CC you may find the folder here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/preference-file-location-illustrator.html

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator/moved-anchor-points-snap-back-to-original-location-after-releasing-in-illustrator-2020/m-p/10858481#M161820

6b) Or follow the instructions here: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/setting-preferences.html

7) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);

Failing everything else, you may consider going on, but there are real dangers ahead unless you run one of the latest two CC versions, or unless you have the installers for both application(s) and possible update(s) on your computer, and even then you may need to restore plugins and whatnot afterwards if you have customized things:

8 ) A) Uninstall (ticking the box to delete the preferences if applicable), B) run the Cleaner Tool (if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6/CC), and C) reinstall. You may try without step B), but sometimes it is needed, because otherwise things may linger.

As it appears from this thread, it may be worth repeating this if it fails to help the first time:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2283530

To uninstall:

https://www.adobe.com/search.html#q=uninstall%20illustrator&sort=relevancy&start=1

Cleaner Tool:

http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

External media: It is generally recommended here to open/save from/to own hard disk, and to copy from/to networks and removable media. You may be lucky (for a while), but the chances of file corruption and other unpleasantnesses are immensely greater when you use anything but the harddisk, and it is better to be safe than sorry.

In addition to the (far greater) risk of file corruption, some issues are mentioned here:

http://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/illustrator-support-networks-removable-media.html

To have a network actually work may require some work.

Be careful that you do not mix Mac and Windows on a network: You must use a Mac server with Mac machines and a Windows server with Windows machines.

If you transfer by external means it is always safest to zip/compress the file to avoid corruption.

I

iritp98285342Author

Participant

Thanks very much everybody for your help,

I still didn't figure it out. I tried installing Illustrator 2015 and the same happened. I also tried deactivating the GPU, to no avail.

The very strange thing is, that if I try to move around the file window, while its "in the air" you can see the art-boards:

But then when I put it down, it disappears again:

Very frustrating !!!

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Irit,

Did you try the preference resetting that Jane suggested?

Here is a fuller list of thing to try from easy to serious (the simple preference resetting is 3)).

If things that should work simply refuse to (all possibilities exhausted including the A) - C) below (and carefully making sure you are performing (all) the needed things)), you may try (the relevant part(s) of) the list 1) - 6) below.

Sometimes, (certain) things may fail or stop working for no apparent reason. When the (other) possible reasons/cures fail to work, it may be some kind of (temporay or permanent) corruption, or even some inconvenient preference setting(s), which may be cured with something on the following list set up in an attempt to provide a catchall solution for otherwise unsolvable cases. It starts with a few easy and harmless suggestions 1) and 2) for milder cases, and goes on with two alternative ways 3) and 4) of resetting preferences to the defaults (easily but irreversibly and more laboriously but more thoroughly and also reversibly), then follows a list 5) of various other possibilities, and it ends with a full reinstallation 6). If no other suggestions work, or if no other suggestions appear, you may start on the list and decide how far to go and/or which may be relevant.

The following is a general list of things you may try when

A) The issue is not in a specific file,

B) You have a printer correctly installed, connected, and turned on if it is physical printer (you may use Adobe PDF/Acrobat Distiller as the default printer with no need to have a printer turned on, obviously you will need to specify when you actually need to print on paper), and

C) It is not caused by issues with opening a file from external media.

You may have tried/done some of them already; 1) and 2) are the easy ones for temporary strangenesses, and 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt/inconvenient preferences); 5) is a list in itself, and 6) is the last resort.

If possible/applicable, you should save current artwork first, of course.

1) Close down Illy and open again;

2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to at least 5 times);

3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);

4) Move the folder (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible), for CS3 - CC you may find the folder here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/preference-file-location-illustrator.html

5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);

Even more seriously (this may be serious because you may need to restore plugins and whatnot afterwards if you have customized things), you may:

6) A) Uninstall (ticking the box to delete the preferences if applicable), B) run the Cleaner Tool (if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6/CC), and C) reinstall. You may try without step B), but sometimes it is needed, because otherwise things may linger.

As it appears from this thread, it may be worth repeating this if it fails to help the first time:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2283530

To uninstall:

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/search/index.cfm?loc=en_us&term=uninstall&cat=support&product=illustrator&self=1

Cleaner Tool:

http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

F

ful

Participant

Tremendously Informative

Ray Yorkshire

Participating Frequently

I know you should not have to, but it might be an idea to install, in addition to the current version, a slightly older version of illustrator, eg 2015 and see if you can get that working, until a solution is found.

Something like this:

I

iritp98285342Author

Participant

Thanks Jacob and Jane,

I can create a document, everything appears normaly, but then there's no actually document. It's as if what I see is the "behind" of the art-boards, like what you see if you close all of the windows. that black void that you can't do anything on, but open or create a document.

Same thing happens if I try to open an .ai file - it pretends to open it, and the window is there, but the canvas isn't.

Thanks again!

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Irit,

Maybe too silly, you may try toggling between GPU and CPU with Ctrl/Cmd+E, or you may try disabling the GPU Performance by clicking the Rocket Icon in the App bar, or on the top of the menu bar, and deselecting the GPU Performance check box; you may also uncheck GPU Performance in your Preferences.

This is what GPU is about:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/gpu-performance-preview-improvements.html