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New Participant
August 4, 2020
Answered

Unable to open .aix file in Illustrator

  • August 4, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 38788 views

I am attempting to open an .aix (Adobe Illustrator Exchange) file exported from ArcGIS Pro into Illustrator CC (24.2.3) Illustrator is telling me that it is an aunknown format and cannot be opened. I don't even see .aix as an available file format in the "open" window. I have the ArcGIS MAps extension for creative cloud extension installed and am signed in to the ArcGIS Online acccount that I administer.

 

Can anyone help me figure out how to use this?

Correct answer Rain_01

Hello, 

 

ArcGIS Maps for Adobe extension was updated yesterday to support the latest Adobe version Illustrator v26 and Photoshop v23. I recommend that you try the latest. It works best when you install or update Adobe apps before installing the extension. If you continue to have issue please leave a note in the Maps for Adobe Esri community forum, this will be the quickest way to get a response from the extensions development team. Here are some links for your reference

Extension latest version download & related release announcement.

Esri's Maps for Adobe community for Questions and Ideas

Thanks
Madhura


I just had this issue happen to me today and switched from my desktop to my laptop with the same issue. After trying all of the above recommendations without success I decided to change the "Mapping Profile" settings under the "ArcGIS Maps: Compilation" mode from "Default Profile (Recommended)" to "Legacy profile" and it worked!

3 replies

New Participant
August 18, 2021

Thanks to all who have offered up solutions! I followed the instructions to download the ArcGIS Maps extension, but when it started the install process, I got an error message that "ArcGIS Maps for Adobe Creative Cloud 3.0.0 requires Adobe Illustrator 2020 (v24.0) - 2021 (v25.2.3)...to be installed".

 

I currently have Adobe Illustrator 2021 (24.4.1) - does that means that my Adobe software is too current to be compatible with the ESRI extension?

Participating Frequently
August 19, 2021

Hi @AFreed 

 

Yes the current version of the plugin supports upto Illustrator version 25.2.3. See this post in the plugins user community forum. Please follow this post for updates. The team is actively working on resolving this for newer Illustrator versions. 

 

Thanks 

Madhura

ArcGIS Maps for Adobe Creative Cloud.

New Participant
October 27, 2021

Hi,

I'm having the same issue with my Windows 10 laptop.  I updated Illustrator and lost the ability to open .aix files.  Now I can't seem to find the Illustrator 25.2.3 version mentioned above.  25.4.1 runs the extension but won't still won't open .aix files created in ArcGIS Pro.  The error message states it's an unknown format and cannot be opened.

 

If anyone has a solution to this, please let me know.

gheorgheh39149782
New Participant
October 21, 2020

I was not able to see the format Adobe Illustrator 2019 and 2021.aix. I have reinstalled the version of this software for 2020 and now it works.

gheorgheh39149782
New Participant
February 26, 2021

Hi. In my case, it was compulsory to uninstall all new versions and to install the 2019 version. Probably, now it works even with the new versions.

Ashutosh_Mishra
Inspiring
August 6, 2020

Hi there,

 

Sorry to hear about your experience. I'd request to follow suggestions given on Adobe community discussion and let us know if they help.

 

Regards,

Ashutosh

New Participant
August 6, 2020

Those steps in the link you gave are exactly what I did, Until I get to step 4 .aix doesn't show up as a valid file type, in the file > open window. 

New Participant
October 29, 2020

I am also having the exact same problem.  .AIX is not an option in the 'file type."  I had no issues at all until Creative Cloud auto-update to Illustrator 2021.  I have uninstalled Illustrator 2021, then reinstalled 2020, and I am still not able to use .aix files.  In 2020, I can at least pull up the ArcGIS plugin, whereas I could not in 2021, but I still cannot use .aix files. Very frustrating, especially since Adobe did an auto-update the day before I was supposed to give a presentation on the ArcGIS Plugin for Adobe.  I am not able to give the presentation now.  I have even tried uninstalling 2020 and reinstalling again with the same issue.  Thank for any advice you can give.