Illustrator struggles when I use Brushes a lot - help!

[parkerbrown]

Unfortunately when I use a lot of brushes in Illy CS - the app slows right down, often taking several seconds to re-draw the screen after doin a command.

Is there any way I can modify the display performance so that I do not have to deal with this issue. (or at least am able ot minimise its effects)

 

[itchybug]

Parker:

This may be more of a video-driver issue than an Illustrator issue... Make sure you have up-to-date drivers for your video-card. There is an option to set the Display Performance in the Preferences menu (Edit>Preferences) but that's only pertaining to navigation AFAIK... You could play with it and see if that does anything.

Bert Philippus -

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[parkerbrown]

Thanks for that itchy - that's not something I would have considered. (video card drivers)

I'll look into it.

 

[parkerbrown]

When it is struggling to re-draw, I keep getting the "Applying Art Brushes" progress bar

 

[itchybug]

Parker:

Are those really complex brushes? Sometimes it is possible to simplify brushes so they are less memory-intensive. It may be worthwhile to go to the source and eliminate some weight there...

HTH

Bert

Bert Philippus -

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[parkerbrown]

Itchy, how do I go about simplifying those brushes, as you describe? I've tried going throught hte Brushes palette, but I can only modify the direction of the brush - not the amount of points in a brush stroke.

I've always wondered how you can edit brush strokes.

 

[itchybug]

parker:

Click and drag a brush from the palette to the artboard. An expanded version of the brush will appear on the artboard wherever you drop the brush. The expanded brush will be grouped.

For the next step, use the group select tool (white arrow with +).

Look for duplicate versions of objects (when the brush is created/expanded, in some scenarios strokes and fills become separate objects) you can reduce this object redundancy by eliminating one and applying the appearance to the leftover one. Fewer objects, less memory.

Look at any brushes with blends and try to reduce the number of steps (you may have to do some re-drawing) to what's necessary, i.e. from 255 to 50 and it may still look smooth.

Generally be on the lookout for having more elements or attributes in use than necessary.

When you get done, click and drag the brush back to the palette. If you want to make it a new brush, simply drop it anywhere in the brush preview window, and a dialog pops up. If you want to keep the brush under its original name, drag the rectified brush over the preview of the original, and alt-drop to re-write.

HTH

Bert

Bert Philippus -

http://www.itchybug.com