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sPretzel
Inspiring
August 25, 2025
Question

Is there a way to "Instantiate" copy of transformed object in Illustrator?

  • August 25, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 545 views

Hi. Is there a way to "instantiate" the copy(ies) of an object when the copy is done through Transform FX? In other words, say I have an object I copy 2 times in Transform FX where I have applied a horizontal shift of 1 in. Can I turn those two copies into actual objects, as exact duplicates of the original object (to which the Transform FX was applied)?

 

The only way that comes close is via Expand Appearance but that creates altered copies of the original object, not exact copies. So it is not what I am looking for. By "altered copies", I mean for example that any live FX applied to the original object are expanded and not maintained as live FX when the copy is expanded.

 

This is for CS4 but answers for any version are welcome.

Thanks.

 

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3 replies

Kurt Gold
Community Expert
Kurt GoldCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 25, 2025

As far as I understand, you may convert the original object (with all its live appearance attributes) to a symbol, then apply the Transform effect to the symbol.

 

Now you can expand appearance, break the link to the symbol instances and ungroup a couple of times. All duplicates should still have the attributes of the original object.

    S
    sPretzelAuthor
    Inspiring
    August 25, 2025

    Hi Kurt. You're right, that is an option. In my case, I wanted to avoid symbols here because of other unrelated issues but perhaps I should reconsider.

    Kurt Gold
    Community Expert
    Kurt GoldCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 25, 2025

    I think I do understand your general request behind the sample case: You are looking for some kind of selective Expand Appearance command that does not flatten all appearance attributes. Instead only selected attributes should be expanded.

     

    That could be pretty useful and I certainly would appreciate it as well. But I can imagine that technically it is not easy to implement.

     

    Therefore, at least at the moment, you will have to rely on workarounds like the symbol route.

    Abhishek Rao
    Community Manager
    Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    August 25, 2025

    Hi @sPretzel,

     

    Thanks for reaching out. I understand what you mean about wanting to turn the Transform FX copies into actual editable objects without losing the live effects. At the moment, Illustrator does not provide a direct way to 'convert' those copies. The Expand Appearance option is the only method available, but as you noticed, it expands the effects and the duplicates no longer stay live. I understand that this functionality is important to you, and I apologize for its unavailability at this time. Would you mind creating a UserVoice for this feature request (https://adobe.ly/3JtESBP) and adding your comments there? Doing this will help us prioritize this request, and you will be notified of any updates.

     

    Best,

    Abhishek

    S
    sPretzelAuthor
    Inspiring
    August 25, 2025

    Hi Abhishek. Thanks for your reply. It sounds as though you got what I meant. Perhaps some users, like Monika Gause, will be able to suggest useful alternative approaches however. I won't be making an entry in UserVoice though. That is Adobe's job, in my opinion.

      Monika Gause
      Community Expert
      Monika GauseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      August 25, 2025

      I do not understand a word.

      S
      sPretzelAuthor
      Inspiring
      August 25, 2025

      Hi Monika. I will try to rephrase the example. I draw a line, that is my object. I then apply Transform FX to it, where I set a horizontal shift of +1 inch, and number of copies 2. The result will be one object. On the artboard however, I will have the original object, and two identical copies of the object spaced 1 inch to its right. What I would like is to somehow convert those two copies into objects in their own right. Those two objects must share all attributes of the original object they are copies of, including all FX, except for the "copy" part. This is what I mean by "instantiate".

       

      I can see that this is going to be a problem, especially for Illustrator to determine what "copy" to keep in Transform FX and which to discard.

       

      Expand Appearance creates visually the result I want. Each converted copy is now an editable oject, but the objects are no longer sharing the same attributes as the original object they copied (the converted original object is also not similar to the original object itself because it was expanded). Is that any clearer?

       

      I could try German next if that is still not clear.  😉

      Monika Gause
      Community Expert
      Monika GauseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      August 25, 2025

      Thank you. It's clear now. 

      Since it's not possible: what is the actual goal?

       

      You will need to do it differently, Kurt Gold has suggested symbols.

      Appearances on the layer could be another option, but then again: what is the broader situation you are in?

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