Illustrator CC 2017 Half Baked

[content1971]

Within one hour of updating "PLEASE UPDATE YOUR SOFTWARE, NEW UPDATES AVAILABLE, HEY YOU HEY YOU UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE" I've lost an hour of work!

THANKS ADOBE!

Thanks for the pointless UI changes!  I love relearning software! Muscle memory is for suckers!

Thanks for changing how clipping paths work! Beautiful! CC2017 team pat yourselves on the backs for that gem.

Thanks for the spinning beachballs when I try to move an artboard! Or duplicate one! I NEVER USE ARTBOARDS ANYMORE ANYWAY.

GAHH

[jane-e]

When you installed 2017, did you select to keep 2016? If not, you can still reinstall it.

I'm not sure if you have an actual question or just a rant, but reinstalling 2016 should help, I hope. Let us know if you need help with the details.

Best,

Jane

[TurboD]

Certainly not a question, definitely criticism. The only chance it had to be constructive would be if you hadn't matched his frustrated tone and gone with a reply like:

"We're sorry you didn't care for the 2017 release. Here at Adobe, we're constantly striving to improve our products to benefit as many of our customers ars possible. Unfortunately, workflows are even more diverse than our list of preferences. If yours fell threw the cracks, we sincerely apologize and encourage you to reinstall the 2016 version of Illustrator to restore the program to just the way you like it."

You could even throw in a:

"We will relay your concerns to our developers and they will take them into account for future builds. Thank you for the feedback, and for being a valued Adobe customer."

For a company that vociferously decried the lack of paid users, you sure go out of your way to make paid users feel worthless, helpless, and stupid.

You're a professional, Jane? How am I the one who's unemployed?

Oh that's right. I can't stop calling rude people "rude."

[Doug A Roberts]

jane doesn't work for adobe. the adobe staff here all have 'staff' badges.

did clipping paths change for the 2017 release? i don't seem to have experienced any difference so far.

[TurboD]

That;'s good to know about the "staff" badge, though I didn't mean to insinuate she was an Adobe employee, more a remark about being a "professional," which I took a leap of faith from to place the word "working" ahead of the "pro" title, which I am not, and, to wit - clearly wrestle with my own personal issues of being bitter.

In retrospect, fighting bitter with bitter was a poor choice. I had a good start, and ended poorly. Also, my employment M.O. LOL.

C'est...

I propose everyone be kinder to everyone.

By Dan Rubin

The end,

[jane-e]

It's okay, Dan, I'm not offended. I was trying to offer a viable solution to the immediate problem and also find out if there was more to the question.

It was a short answer, as we had been out of town to a funeral, and picked up house-guests at the airport on the way home. They had just left, and I was extremely tired when I answered. I am so sorry that it seemed bitter to you, as it was not meant to be.

Best,

Jane

[Doug A Roberts]

i think he's referring to his previous job there jane.

[content1971]

Well I certainly didn't expect people to read my rant (intended to express frustration at a (perceived) faceless company), much less reply to it, but here we are.

I guess the lesson for me is to remember there are indeed faces behind the company, and in the forums too. So let's not name call. I appreciate Jane's response even though I'm aware I can reinstall the previous version. I also think frustrated sarcasm should probably wait at least one sleep before it goes live, allowing for morning discretion and revaluation.

The frustration is real though. I happens with pretty much every upgrade, or with any change, on that I'm sure we'd all agree. Some would say it's the price of progress. Some would argue it's not an ideal experience.

I love clipping paths. I love art boards! I love illustrator; it's been my bread and butter for years. I'm constantly amazed at what I get away with when I clip some crazy compound path and still manage to output valid postscript. I don't even pretend to understand the magic behind that.

The file I was working on yesterday featured a busy distressed vector pattern that I needed to clip within a G shape. It's something I'm used to Illustrator just plowing through no problemo. However, when I tried it, I got a blank transparent G. No error message. Nothing. I tried a test mask on a simple fill, no problem. I tried a slightly more complicated fill, no problem. I made a new artboard, spinning beach ball, crash. Tested, repeated crashed. Spinning beachballs and hanging apps are the bane of your existence late in the day when you want to finish up a simple routine task and go have dinner with your sweetie.

Ahh well, let's try to enjoy the frustration and still be good people to each other. Illustrator 2017 on the other hand, is off my Christmas card list. For now. We'll see how the rest of the week goes.

[jane-e]

Hi content1971​,

Thanks for coming back, and it's okay to rant! As Doug said, most of us are volunteers with many years of experience who monitor the forums and try to help users. I thought there might be a specific issue. Illustrator (theoretically) has a feature that if it crashes, it will reopen and save when crashing. Did that feature work for you?

How to recover file data after a crash in Illustrator

Also, there is a bug report form:

Feature Request/Bug Report Form

And you might want to reset preferences:

How to set preferences in Illustrator

And last, if you want to try to recreate the problem file, please take a screen shot and post it here or put it in Dropbox so one or more of us can look at it. Be sure to save it often as you go.

Yes, I agree with "let's be good to each other"—I like your thinking! And there are many of us here who want to help you. We use Illustrator, too, and want it to work as much as you do. Adobe needs to know about these bugs and issues so hopefully they can fix them. And they do bring things back sometimes when enough people speak up using the Bug Report / Wish Form (above).

[KShinabery212]

The great thing is you can choose which version of Illustrator you work with.  If you do not find the updates a match for your workflow, then you can always opt for a past version.  I know maybe that is less cool then what you want... but it is a solution.

So far I have not had any problems with any of the software.  Or at least have not noticed any big changes to the tools I use.  Or I have not just seen it yet.

Yep...  ACPs are knowledgeable users who are here to help.  While Staff are people who actually work for Adobe.  Which I think is kind of nice.  As ACPs really use the software like everyone else.  So it is really cool that they take their own time to answer questions or try to help problem solve.  Plus, if you ever call a customer hotline for any product like say Microsoft Office you will get some person who just answers questions and may or may not have experience using the software.  So I think having ACPs is a great benefit!  Advice from peers who have proven themselves in their fields.

Hope that you can find a work around to the changes you dislike.  I completely get it and it woudl frustrate me too.  But like I said you can always work with an older version of your choice.  But you took the right step in voicing your opninion.  Companies like Adobe do listen to their users and they do make adjustments to applications at times depending on how many users want something or complain about something.  So any time you like or dislike something let it be known... as that is how the software will evolve.... that goes with most developers....  tell them... give them feedback.... 

Even in the gaming industry... giving postive and negative feed back helps the developers modfiy the game play.