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freehand question?

slappy

New Member
not sure how to explain this.... but here it goes.........

i used to be able to export my work in flexi as a ai vector file.
then i would open freehand10 and import there if i needed to use freehand.

now when i go to import the ai file in freehand it just shows up as a box with a x. what to do, what to do? any suggestions. I uploaded the program again and it's still doing this.
 
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Shovelhead

New Member
It's a desktop publishing program.......

notorious for being a big pain in the A for the sign industry.
Doesn't convert or import well into our software.
 

slappy

New Member
it worked fine before and all of a sudden it just won't import vectors anymore. I don't understand what i did.
 

katgraphics

New Member
In Flexi (not farmiliar with it) is there any sort of option for saving with previews? I know if I save a file from Illustrator without that option checked the same thing will happend.

I have freehand, and hate it too! Are you on a Mac or PC?
 

slappy

New Member
both mac and pc.... i messed with my saving options in flexi so when a save a jpeg they are clear for me to post so i wouldn't have to post pdf's here anymore....but now that i've got that to work i now got this problem. i nomally use the pc more then the mac..... the mac's mainly just for cutting. i haven't used the mac to design anythings for almost a year.
 

katgraphics

New Member
If you would like to send me the file, I'll open it in Illustrator and save as .ai with preview. Then see if you can work with it in Freehand.
 

slappy

New Member
i'm going to mess with the settings in flexi again and see if i can fix it but thanks for the offer i'll keep you in mind:)
 

Bobby H

Arial Sucks.
Freehand is an enormously picky program when it comes to importing EPS and AI artwork from other applications. Most of the time it simply "places" the artwork in non-editable form and with that anger-inspiring box with an "X" through it. This is one area where Illustrator beats Freehand by a huge margin. At least Illustrator will try to parse many flavors of Postscript and bring it into the application in fully editable form.

I used Freehand for a number of years and never saw it successfully import a EPS file created by another application. It would only import EPS files created by Freehand, which is essentially 100% useless. Might as well just save in regular FH format.

Freehand only seems to like Illustrator files that were actually created with Adobe Illustrator. AI files exported from applications like Corel and Flexi can be problematic.

Slapakiss, did you apply an update to Flexi or do a full version upgrade. Something might have happened there. Even new drivers for printers and even video cards can change things.

Adobe is still selling the upgrade for Freehand MX. I never bothered upgrading my copy of FH10 to that, but it could be worth a try. FHMX does have a number of "live" effects similar to those introduced in the most recent versions of Illustrator.
 

slappy

New Member
haven't done anything with upgrades... other then mess with flexi's saving options to save clearer jpegs...so that has to be what's wrong..... but i didn't remember i did that to flexi the other day so when i went to import something and it didn't work.... i assumed it was freehand and messed with freehands import options lol...so i might just be SOL for awhile in that department of import/export. It sucks cause i use to do it all the time and now i don't know what to do when i need the other program
 

Mason

New Member
Export out of Flexi as an .ai, then locate the file in the folder youve placed it in, right click on the file and change the .ai to .eps give that a try and if it doesnt work then try saving it back a couple versions (not sure if Flexi lets you) adversely you may try saving/exporting it as a pdf and try to open that in Freehand.
 

Ron Helliar

New Member
Review your preferences in Freehand. Most times, embed & convert are turned off when importing eps files. I just dusted FH10 off and tried it with an ai out of flexi 7.6. Worked like a champ.
 

slappy

New Member
tried all you suggested mason.....and nothing.... anything vector just won't open. not even eps. dunno what to do.
 

slappy

New Member
Review your preferences in Freehand. Most times, embed & convert are turned off when importing eps files. I just dusted FH10 off and tried it with an ai out of flexi 7.6. Worked like a champ.
i tried with it on and off.....and yet nothing, it used to work like a champ:( by you saying most times it's off, are you meaning it should be off (or on) is yours marked off when it worked?
 

Ron Helliar

New Member
No they don't reset on their own. Except when you clear the prefs (manually) and or reload the program.
If your still not there, you may have a bad node, fill, or complex artwork. Have you tried another file, or maybe export the things you need from Freehand back to flexi? Feel free to send the file my way and I can take a look.
 
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