Tricky question about illustrator drawing imported into InDesign document.

[KamilaB]

Hi fellow designers...

I have a very tricky question for you I think.

I have been working in InDesign for years now and I really love it, especially when working in conjunction with other Adobe formats. I mostly work in illustrator first and import that file into the InDesign document later. In there I can switch one and off relevant layers from one Ai file and create multiple pages based on this one file. Now, I mean multiple layers. So, for example, if I have let's say 50 layers in Ai and I use 25 of those on one page in inDesign. I will use different layers for page number 2 and so on. So I am left with one Ai file used several times. This process is great if your Ai file is small, but if the file is 10MB(let's say) the same file is duplicated several times and the InDesign document is hudge. So I thought the idea is to reduce the number of layers in Ai. 

Now to the tricky question. If I have that one Ai imported into InDesign and I have, let's say, 25 layers visible,  out of 50, is it possible to export that page/set up with only 25 layers set up in InDesign into an Illustrator format and save it as a new Ai file with only those 25 layers? 

I really hope I have explained it well and you know what I am talking about. 

I would really appreciate your help.

Kamila

[BobLevine]

The answer is no, that is not possible and frankly, there is no reason to do so.

[KamilaB]

Thank you.

[John Mensinger]

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@KamilaB wrote:

is it possible to export that page/set up with only 25 layers set up in InDesign into an Illustrator format and save it as a new Ai file with only those 25 layers? 

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It's up to you of course, but it may help if you reverse your thinking a bit and do your layer show/hide in Illustrator, pre-export.

50 layers of .AI, saved as master.AI

• In Illustrator, hide unwanted layers
• Save As page01.(PDF or .AI)
• Place page01. in InDesign

Back in Illustrator, master.AI

• Show/hide other combination of layers
• Save As page02.(PDF or .AI)
• Place page02. in InDesign

And so on...

Your master Illustrator file stays intact and unthreatened, your InDesign file is economized.