Illuustrator CS freezes when I increase artboard size???

[wjgrayson]

I'm running CS on a PC Pentium 4 with 1.5 Gig RAM, so I don't know why I'm having the problem. Unfortunately, buying a MAC is simply not an option to solving the problem for me.

I created a letter size flyer that has a rather complicated headline text graphic that combines gradients, and give text a 3D effect by using the blend tool with 13 or 14 "specified steps". The actual file is about 3 MB.

I'm now trying to generate a larger 17 x 22" poster from it. When I open the original letter size file, and go to document setup to increase the size of the artboard, Illustrator absolutely freezes for 10 minutes. When I come back from doing my laundry or whatever chore I've found to pass away the time, I get a message that I didn't have enough RAM to complete the operation, and CS has generated an outline version of the file. Being the geek that I aspire to be, I use Windows task manager to see that the program is utilizing almost a full gigabyte of RAM to try to render the file.

Is there are problem with my computer, or the way I've set up the images? I can manipulate the file fine in the original letter size, and I think I've taken other files and increased the artboard size from 8 1/2 x 11".

I think the culprit is the actual graphic I created, but I'm not sure. I've also run Scan Disk, and even reinstalled Illustrator thinking I had a corrupt application.

I have 1.5 Gigabytes of RAM. Shouldn't that be enough?

Thanks in advance,

W!

 

[jmgalvin]

You might try this. With your original open, open your Graphic Styles window. Click on your stylized text and then, on the Graphic Styles window click New Graphic style - saving your style. You can repeat this for each element.

Start a new 17 X 22 document. On the original try Select All/Copy and see if you can paste it into the new poster. If you don't get jammed on the copy-paste, you can then resize the elements 200%. If you do get jammed, copy individual elements. If you lose any of the formatting, you can just click on an element and then click on the appropriate graphic style to get it back.

Illustrator can be rather demanding of a machine. Especially when you have a lot of fancy effects. I'm on osx with 1.25 gigs of RAM and 64 meg of VRAM & I've done some waiting when applying some 3D effects.

 

[wjgrayson]

Thanks for the quick response. I did try the copy/paste method with all the elements selected and got "jammed" to use your words; the machine locked up as well.

I'll try the other approach with designating a graphic style.

W!