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ClementNWRPC
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

    A
    AFreed
    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?

    K
    karmadz
    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.

      D
      default37srm80sgxf2
      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
      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
      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
      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

      K
      Kinjal Manish5CD0
      New Participant
      November 8, 2020

      I had similar issues. This is what worked for me:

      In Illustrator (whichever version you want to use), go to windows => Extensions and check if it has "ArcGIS maps for Adobe Creative Cloud" extension INSTALLED IN SOFTWARE. 

      If it misses the extension, you have to probably download it again. (This is where I think the issue lies, when Illustrator updated, it failed to download the extension and hence we can't seem to open the AIX file)

      Link to download: https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/maps-for-adobecc/overview

      Once you have downloaded it, sign in and you should be good to go. 

        A
        aidanw415
        New Participant
        February 26, 2021

        Are you required to have a special ArcGIS user type in order to use the .aix files in illustrator? I recently downloaded ArcGIS Pro and my main use of the software is to get layers for cartography to use in illustrator. I read on the ESRI website that they want you to have a Creator user type to use the adobe files but that costs $500/year. Can this be right? 

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