Combining multiple Illustrator files into one file

[KarenLee]

I have a project with multiple parts that needed to stay organized, so I created 10 different Illustrator files (each with 3 to 30 art boards of various sizes) to keep size manageable and content themes separate.

Everything went to press (to a sign shop).

NOW, some parts of each file need reprinting so I'd like to combine them all into one file so I'm not telling printer to re-do "page 1 of file 3, page 4 of file 5" which is a recipe for disaster.

Is there a way to combine Illustrator files (including art boards) so I can bring them all together and then delete the boards I don't need?

Thank you!

[Bill Silbert]

How about bringing the needed Illustrator files into InDesign? With the page tool in inDesign you can make your InDesign pages the same size as the needed Illustrator files. Then you can import only the artboards you need into the InDesign file. When you're ready to send the job out you can either do a collect within InDesign and send out only what is needed to print or even export a single pdf to send to the printer.

[marliton]

Copy-paste in a new AI document with multiples artboards.

[pllturner]

Hi Marilton,

I tried to do that. I selected all my dartboard and all the stuff on them, and copied, but when I go to the file I want to paste into, it says "Cant paste the objects. The requested transformation would make some objects fall completely off the drawing area."

I have two files, both are cards from a deck. I need to paste new cards in to this file to keep them all together.

Thanks for any advice you can give. I've been using Illustrator since 1993, so I'm not sure why I have never had to do this before!

[marliton]

I heard this problem before. Sometimes saving the file in another format like eps or pdf fix the problem.

As Bill said, because InDesign supports Illustrator native files, you can import those AI files in an InDesign document.

[pllturner]

Okay, I'll give that a try as soon as I can. Thanks!

[Caroteicher]

for next reader, this may help
When the "Cant paste the objects. The requested transformation would make some objects fall completely off the drawing area." dialog box appears try this:
release your selection,  check lock guides; then select your elements again and try to paste them where you need them. Sometimes, if you have selected guides -even if they are hidden- and try to paste them somewhere else, it is what couses the issue.
Cheers

[defaultu3scmyaih6w5]

Thanks so much..It worked..

[Katz.Kristen]

Theres a number of ways you could try this.  Depending on what the print shop needs of course.

If you have multiple artboards in a .ai file you could use the "save as" function and in the dialog box you'll see an option that says "save each artboard to a separate file".  Then you could select the files that result choosing only the ones you want to print again and (provided you're on mac) use acrobat's "combine" function to press all those files into one PDF.   This I believe would be the most efficient method.

** The resulting files would pair the original files name say.. "master" with the artboard name "1".  You can rename the artboards ahead of time with a script or manually to make sure your file output is organized and easy to navigate.

OR if you really want to have a combined Illustrator file of all the art but naturally it doesn't want to copy the artboards as you were expecting.... You could make place holder objects that stay on your artboards and are the same size as the artboard(Visible or Invisible). When you select all on that artboard it would select that item as well then when you paste in the new file select the placeholder object and use Object>Artboards>Convert to Artboard.

** If you find this is something you may become accustomed to doing you could also use the attributes panel on your invisible/visable object to input a note on that object that perhaps says something like "artboard".  You only have to do that once then can make it a symbol for reuse later or copy and paste that object as often as needed. If you make it a symbol you have to break the instance of the symbol before it remembers there's a note on the object. Then you can create an action that will select all objects with "artboard" as the note and it will then convert those to artboards all at once instead of manually doing it all the time.

          Action: Select Object "artboard", Convert to Artboards.

Just two possible humble solutions to consider.