Illustrator is crashing when using swatches (mac and PC)

[Eline5C3F]

Dear,

When trying to use swatches, illustrator is not responding. I allready followed the performance recommendation document, but the problem remains. I tried it on a macbook pro and on a windows10 computer.

16GB ram, I5,SSD

Any advice?

[Monika Gause]

Please tell us step by step what is happening.

Which version of Illustrator is it?

[Eline5C3F]

I'm using illustrator 2021. First I place the different elements in a preffered setting. Then I add to swatches. When opening the swatch settings and trying to manipulate the elements (size/location/ way of repeating), Illustrator stops responding. and/ or manipulation is terribly slow.

[Monika Gause]

"First I place the different elements in a preffered setting."

Can you please be more specific?

This is about patterns? Thenwhat kind of elements are they? Vector artwork? Do you happen to use a lot of effects? Transparency? Lots of objects?

[Maarten5D19]

Yes correct, when making a repeated pattern. (purpose is to design fabrics - for sewing purposes)
The number of illustrations vary, 5 to 8 different illustrations. 

Yes all vector illustrations, admitting only having the problem occur when using 'heavy' illustrations. 

Flower, branches, pettals,... not really transparency effects. Just very detailed illustrations.
Can avoid the problem when I save all the different elements as a PNG and then importing them all in a new file. Putting them together and dragging them into the swatches panel. But when wanting to change something to one element it is not my favourite option.

Thanks for the help!

[Monika Gause]

Maybe your computer can't handle this kind of heavy files. 16 GB of RAM is just the recommended amount, but certainly with a lot of objects more would be better.

You could try if turning off saving in the background as well as turning off auto-recovery for complex documents changes anything.

Maybe try and turn off the realtime screen redraw as well.

[Maarten5D19]

Thanks. What would be your recommendation for hardware & specs for never having this issue occur? 

Auto-recovery: tried but did not make a difference.
Problem occurs immediately when starting with swatches panel, so don't thing the saving in the background would be the problem.

But will try as well as realtime screen redraw option (after finding out how to 😅)

Again, thanks a lot for the help.

[Ton Frederiks]

Did you try to compose your pattern using the Pattern maker (Object > Pattern > Make) instead of dragging to the Swatches panel?

[Maarten5D19]

Did not know that was also a way to make it. 🙈
But tested it, but does exactly the same... meaning the never ending waiting game 😅

Example below. Managed to make a pattern out of composition, at this stage I want to start dragging and moving the objects around to achieve a well composed pattern.

[Ton Frederiks]

Does not look too complicated (but I cannot see how complex the individual elements are).

As Monika suggested, try turning off Preferences > Performance > Real-Time Drawing and Editing.

And restarting you machine may help sometimes.