Density of paths & sluggish response time

[fern]

I'm creating objects with the paintbrush that result in an accumulation of a lot of data, so copying and pasting is VERY slow. I'd appreciate any suggestions to address this problem and still be able to access the paths to make changes.

[aesthie]

Hi - I'm still learning this thing myself so this is only really a gut suggestion (I have a lot of experience with FreeHand).

The paths I presume you end up creating will define shapes... (someone more experienced with illustrator feel free...). I'd suggest merging as many as you practically can recognising your artwork will require separate shapes.

That is - menus: Window > Pathfinder. (In the resulting pallette) Choose (roll-over the icons) 'merge' on the bottom row.

Another thing to play with might be the simplify under menu: Object > Path >...

Hope this helps.

[micke]

Hi Fern,

I think your problem is memory. How much RAM do you have? With CS3 a gig of RAM or more will speed things up. What is your operating system?

Do you have an external hard drive or second hard drive? If so, in Preferences>Plugins & Scratch Disks, assign an external or second drive as a scratch disk.

Also, working in Outline viewing mode (as opposed to Preview mode) will really speed up copy and paste. Command/control-Y toggles between Preview and Outline modes. Back when I was working in Illustrator v.5 with 12 megs of RAM I had to use outline mode a lot or things really got S L O W.

Hope this helps.

micke