Participant

Answered

Illustrator Layers are expanded when opening.

Forum|Forum|13 years ago
March 30, 2012
13 replies
28135 views

I haven't had much luck googling this, because I am not certain of the proper terminology to ask the question.

When I open a file, one or more layer are opened/expanded in the layer tab on the side of the screen. I can close the layer, make modifications, and save; but when I open it up, the layer is always opened.

It doesn't happen with every file. But on the files that do have this, it's always like this.

Any ideas? It's rathe annoying, especially with larger art files.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Satinder S Bains

Given the ease of upgrades with Creative Cloud

I thinks what's easy is the delivery of the upgrades, not the actual upgrades.

This issue is fixed in 17.1 update released for Illustrator CC

Satinder

Illustrator Team

R

raymassie

Participant

Version 22.1 and this is still an issue.

I

Invoke2015

Participant

I don't see a fix. I am running version 20.0.0 and every time I open any file all the sublayers pop open. In a file with hundreds of layers this gets incredibly tedious. Why can't Illustrator remember the state of my layers when I save? Photoshop does.

S

SoloAnt

Participant

This issue is happening again for me with 18.1.1. Anyone else having this problem?

S

Severon2

Participant

Same issue. This drives me insane, because as a UI Developer with tons of art boards in a single file, it inhibits my work.

S

Samelot

Participating Frequently

In my project I've been needing sub-layers to arrange an easier way to export to PSD. I have different parts of my text (2 or 3 parts) that I arrange each in a layer. So my hierarchy for a single piece of text might be:

layer

layer - foreground

layer - background

(Seems to be the only way of grouping two layers together.)

This grouping exists on an artboard, which gives me further control of my exporting. I've tried to group the foreground and background objects in a group but that removes the objects from their respective layers, compressing my eventual export to PSD.

The inconstancy of how grouped items unwind is just sloppy and adobe has to fix this now please. It would make much more sense if clicking on the arrow, so that it rotates facing downwards, supports a more contingent function. It just gets confusing and really distracting when things do not work as they should.

B

bluchair

Participant

i too have been using illustrator since version 8. i seem to recall this issue appearing along the way in cs2. if memory serves, at that time it only happened when you closed a file with sublayers twirled OPEN but since cs3 this no longer has been the case.

the simple truth is that once a function is built into the software and the user is encouraged to take advantage of it so as to IMPROVE work flow, save time etc. then the function should actually do that. the function should work. as it stands, this is not/has not been the case with layers and sublayers in illustrator.

those of us who depend on illustrator for our daily work do not need a work around. what we need is a true and proper FIX. this issue does not appear in photoshop or inDesign, so why is illustrator left to suffer?

one more thing... i wonder how many people are quietly agonizing over this self-same issue with no interest in posting a comment on it? or worse, what if they do tell all their design friends about this issue and then began to look for sofware alternatives?

just sayin...

chrisgieger

Participant

I'm still dealing with this issue on a daily basis as well. I find it amazing that a patch has not been release to fix this bug since it began - or at least since this thread was started back in March 2012. Given the ease of upgrades with Creative Cloud, I would think a patch would have arrived long ago.

So dissappointing.

CarlosCanto

Community Expert

Given the ease of upgrades with Creative Cloud

I thinks what's easy is the delivery of the upgrades, not the actual upgrades.

H

haligaliharun

Known Participant

Please Adobe fix this. Cloud updates are nice and useful if we can have this relationship where we clients ask for stuff and you update the software ... constantly, not every few years. I understand that you have to prioritise but here it looks like that lots of people are asking for this simple fix ...

W

wkjeiwoi

Participating Frequently

I second haligaliharun's comment and add that it would be nice if such a fix were extended to CS6 non-cloud users, too.

This is a serious, workflow-damaging problem that has been going on for years. Fixing this problem is more needed than any new features, IMHO.

Thank you!

w

A

Anonymous

I'm also having the same issue. It never experienced it until I bought CS5, I thought it would have been fixed in CS6, but no still here.

This is extremely annoying. My workflow now involves a couple mintues closing all the sublayers. What a great way to start work with.

K

keepmehandin

Participant

Closing sublayers is a routine chore when opening some of my more complex files which I have been building up over several years. The fact that this routine has become mindlessly automatic suggests that it could be best done by a computer—come on Adobe, sort this bug out!

W

wkjeiwoi

Participating Frequently

this is beyond ridic...

the entire reason for having layers to begin with is to help the user organize her/his work. this bug nearly unravels that helpful functionality and gives the user another chore to do.

I personally noticed it in CS4/5, it continues in 6, and I presume, cloud users are seeing it, too.

You expect this sort of thing in shareware apps, not industry-standard tools.

C

ctmurphyri

Participant

This is absolutely unbelievably annoying. GET A CLUE ADOBE. I have hundreds of sublayers. Thanks for all your helpful comments BUT ADOBE NEEDS TO GET A CLUE ON THIS ONE!

M

marcalamari

Participant

SOULTION WORK ARROUND HERE:

At a previous job at AARP.org, we had CS2 and went to CS4, where I first noticed this "bug."

Sometimes, we'd have a file with 10-30 web page designs in it and having to close all the Layers showinging every Sublayer drove me nuts and can take a few Annoyed minutes.

I still have this issue in CS5, and noticed it yesterday on a co-workers CS6.

So, today I decided to Google search and fonund this thread.
I've spent the last 2 hours trying to fix the issue of all Layers and Sublayers showing when opening a document and I have found a work arround.

Now, we know that Illustrator gives a unique color to items that live on seperate layers, and it also does this for Sub-layers.

It seems when you open a file with lots of layers and sub-layers, the defualt in Illustator is to show all layers.
To fix that bug they need to add a "Show/Hide Sublayers" or something.

I think they may have added "Sublayers" in CS4, and that is when this "bug" started for the users. I'm not sure.
Also, sometimes items are getting stuck inside sub-layers etc, and it becomes hard to move selected items to the front and or back using short cut commands, you have to actually go move the sub-layer. meh.

Somethings to note:

Adobe gives the user the option to "Merge Selcted Layers" but this only lets you merge layers and sub-layers that live within the same heiarchy, and you still will have lower level sub-layers, and you can't drag a sub-sub-level layer to the the sub-layer up from it.

I haven't figured out how or why all the sublayers got created, I know I never made a actual "New Sublayer"

So, if there is a process in the workflow to avoid doing that, I'll look out for it and post something in the future.
But it may have to do with working with custom symbols, pasting form layers to layers, Paste Remembers Layers being selected, copying layers, etc... I don't know.

So, here is how I cleaned up my file:

I removed all the damn sub-layers that ened up in my file somehow.

1) First make sure "Paste Remembers Layers" is NOT selcted in the Layers palette menu.

2) Select everything in a specific layer by clicking on the circle to the right of the layer name in the layers palatte or use commed-c to copy.

3) With all your content still selected, delete everything.

4) Select all the sub-layers (which are now empty), that are underneath your most top level layer.

5) Click on your top level layer, and use Shift-Command-V to Paste in Place (also found under the Edit menu).

Now, your layers will look like the used back in CS3 or CS2, you will have NO Sublayers, and after you save and re-open the document, all layers will not be open showing.

Ta-Da! This has been driving me crazy for like a year and a half. Work arround discovered.

Thought I should share.

Now, if you like using layers and naming them, then you're stuck with all layers showing upon opening a document but you can reduce what shows by going into Panel Options and checking "Show Layers Only"
This will show only your layers and sub-layers, but it can reduce you seeing all the paths and objects, etc., but when you open documents, all those layers will still be open. Got it?

_scott__

Legend

It's not really a workaround to destroy the existing layer structure. There is often a very valid and helpful reason a file contains a layer structure.

A better option is to create a new top level layer, move all your layers into that new top level layer. Then when opening the document you can simply option/Alt-click to close the top level layer and all the sublayers will be collapsed as well.

M

marcalamari

Participant

Nice, well that worked for me the first time. and that seems to be a good route for users who wish to maintain layers and sub-layers that have been named. The file will still open with every layer and sub-layer showing, but when I option/alt clicked on the expand/close triangle, all layers close into that new top level layer, and then I simply just clicked on the expand for that layer again, and all the sublayers were closed. Well it worked it first time at least.

I closed and re-opened my test file, and each time I followed your option/alt click, and each time I still got buggy different results.
The first time, I made a new Top level layer, then I took 3 previous top level layers each containing several sub-layers and moved them there. saved. closed, re-opened, did the option/alt click. and ta-da, it did exactly what you said. All layers closed into that new top level layer, and then I simply just clicked on the expand for that layer again, and all the sublayers were closed and easy to read and find.

Then, I added more layers with sub-layers, saved then re-opened, did the option/alt, all layers closed into one, but the expanding of that then gave me buggy results.

A few, now second level layers stayed closed, the rest stayed open, still giving me the original problem of then having to close all those now, second level layers.
I closed them all, saved a second time, closed, re-opened, followed your instructions, and then this time different, now second level layers were condensed while others were all open again. I played around with this a few more times and each sequential time, I got different results.
I even started over with a new file. No go.

Unless, I am missing something. then overall your suggestion isn't 100% a better option.

I think a lot of us user who may have been using Illustrator for years, have been confused by the addition of sublayers.

I for one, have no use for sublayers.
Therefore, the solution I posted previously, works the best for me, and I will look out to make sure sublayers are not magically created in future files that I set up to work with.

RobBarrett

Community Expert

Just adding another +1 for this - while it's only a small issue, it does get very irritating over time.

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