Line Weight Bug in PC version of AI CS3 1

[treddie]

Howdie.
I am an Illustrator user now since 1992, and this is the first time I have ever encountered this. Although with Adobe's Illustrator products for some years now, you really don't know what to expect anymore.

I would have attached an example but this forum will not allow uploading from my machine, so I will describe this as best as possible.

I have 4 boxs in a row. The respective stroke weights are 1pt, .5pt, .1pt and .05pt. When it reaches .1pt, all of a sudden the stroke looks like some weird calligraphy stroke. Anything lighter, and the problem still remains. It is not a display issue because if you transform the stroke into a solid object, it retains the same weird shape. HOWEVER, if I export out as a bitmap, or place it on the clipboard for Photoshop, the problem goes away. This is definitely a new problem that just cropped up with Illustrator this week, and was wondering if there is some particular config file somewhere that maybe got corrupted and I could toss out and let Illustrator rebuild the file on next run. Again, this is the PC version of Illustrator.
Thanks for any responses.

 

[apepp]

...no idea really, but i'm on a mac so us mac users don't have such PC world problems and headaches...

...however, the only thing you want to try is delete the preferences files, which are rebuilt on launch of illustrator...

If manually deleting this file, ensure Illustrator is closed first.

With Illustrator CS and later, it is also possible to delete the preferences by holding down CTRL+ALT+SHIFT(Win)/Shift+Option+Command(Mac) whilst starting the application and responding 'Yes' when prompted.


Illustrator preferences are stored in the file Aiprefs. This file has no file extension, is a hidden file, and its location is dependent upon the operating system version.

Windows:

To locate the file from Windows Explorer it is necessary to set Explorer Folder options > View to "View Hidden Files and Folders"

Under Win XP and Win 2K, the file will be located in:

%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\~username\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator[Version][Settings-(CS/CS2)].

Mac OSX:

Users>~username>Library>Preferences>Adobe Illustrator CS Settings>Adobe Illustrator Prefs


Andrew

 

[treddie]

Thanks for the reply, apepp.
Unfortunately that did not work. What is weird is that I reinstalled the product after running Adobe WinCS3Clean, and the problem is still there. This is a showstopper. I may have to drop back to CS2 because of this. It's almost as if there is some setting somewhere that needs resetting, but that does not make sense after a clean install. And I updated to 13.0.2 as well.

 

[apepp]

...i take it you deactivated CS3 before uninstalling?

...this step is documented as part of the uninstall process...

...from a CS3 application, Choose Help > Deactivate and follow the on screen instructions...

...worth checking through these steps to see if anything else you may not have done that could help the next time you re-install:

Close all applications currently running on your system, including other Adobe applications, MS Office applications, and browser windows.

Run the uninstaller:
Go to Start Menu > Control Panel.
Double-click Programs And Features (Windows Vista) or Add Or Remove Programs (Windows XP).

Select the CS3 program or suite, click Remove, and follow the on-screen instructions.

Repeat for each CS3 program or suite that you wish to uninstall.

Remove all files related to CS3 from your system:
Go to Start Menu > My Computer.

In the Address bar near the top of the window type one of the following:

On Windows Vista, type: \Users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe

On Windows XP, type: \Documents and Settings\<user_name>\Application Data\Adobe

Delete files and folders with CS3 in the name.

In the Address bar near the top of the window type one of the following:

On Windows Vista, type: \Users\<user_name>\AppData\Local\Adobe

On Windows XP, type: \Documents and Settings\<user_name>\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe

Delete files and folders with CS3 in the name.


...and theory has it that if you unable to install CS3 or uninstall CS3 correctly from the above steps then the clean up script comes into play, downloadable here:

http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cs3clean.html

The script is not intended to remove all of the directories and preferences which might have been installed; there may still be some left. The goal is to enable subsequent installations which failed without this tool.

Andrew

 

[apepp]

..when running the adobe clean up script you have two levels, 1 or 2, it recommends 1 first time around to leave acrobat unaffected, but you may as well run level 2 to remove registry files...

...more on verify the clean up script has worked here:

VERIFY THE ADOBE CS3CLEAN SCRIPT COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY

Open the Adobe CS3Clean Script log. Location of the AdobeCS3Clean.log file:

Windows XP
Documents and Settings\[Username]

Windows Vista
Users\[Username]

Open the AdobeCS3Clean.log file in a text editor such as Notepad.

Search the log for "Access is Denied".

Grant the administrator full control of the file or registry entry listed in the log.

Examples of file and registry entries log errors include:

Folder or file permission error: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Resource\CMap\83pv-RKSJ-H - Access is denied.

Registry permission error: HKLM\Software\Adobe\InDesign\5.0 - Access is denied.

Delete the folder, file, or registry entry listed in the log file.

Reboot your system.

Tips
Start out at Level 2 and advance to Level 3 only if you still have issues installing your CS3 applications.

Running this script removes folders created during the installation of CS3 applications.

Note: You may have to run the script multiple times at level 1 or level 2 in order to remove everything. Delete the AdobeCS3Clean.log file before running the script again. We recommend running the script until there this no entries created between the action to initiate the script and completion. If there are paths listed, then the script found more things to try to delete. If the script is continues to list locations in the log without an error message please check these locations manually and remove them.

 

[treddie]

Just finished talking with a MAC user over the phone and we duplicated the same behaviour on a MAC platform with CS3. So this is definitely a cross-platform issue buried in a platform-independent algorithm somewhere.

 

[apepp]

...under what mac system?

andrew

 

[apepp]

...with or without anti-aliasing turned on in the preferences of illustrator?

Andrew

 

[treddie]

Anti-aliasing has no effect on the problem...it simply adds the jaggies when it's off.

To compare systems:
Fujitsu-N Laptop Dual-Core P4, 2Gig Mem, Win XP SP2

MAC G5, Panther, unknown RAM but I used to work there and
they usually try to pump it up as high as they can get it.

 

[apepp]

...not sure you mean panther os x as CS3 is 10.4 or higher only, so they wouldn't be able to install it...

...i've ran cs3 under 10.4 without the symptoms you have provided, so it must be a very rare occurence...

...as for the system setup on windows, that spec is fine...

...i'd be inclined to call Adobe Tech Support, explain your situation, and ask them to duplicate it, sounds more a graphics render problem to me, though Adobe would know better i expect...

Andrew

 

[treddie]

YAh, I'm posting there as well. They've never seen this before.
Here is an image of the problem. I would have tried this before but I brain-farted (I hope this downloads ok):

http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=7764570

 

[treddie]

This image was AFTER I outlined the stroke to make it a solid filled object (so that the problem would survive making it into Photoshop from the clipboard).

 

[treddie]

And remember, this is a .1 point stroke, NOT 1 point. So you definitely need to be zoomed all the way in to try this.

 

[apepp]

...yes, very odd, doesn't happen on my system...

...but nonetheless a .1pt stroke is incredibly fine, even in lithographic printing .25pt is about the thinnest safe line weight to use if solid, if at a percentage tint then your looking at worse problems on a printed sheet, so much so that the lines won't print at all...

...also most desktop printers will only hold a certain weight of line, so if it encounters really thin lines it will always use it's limit and therefore look thicker on a desktop printer, compared to a CTP plate...

...litho plates can hold a pretty fine lines on a CTP system, but .1pt is pushing it a bit anyway...

...so in view of a high end print output workflow, .25pt is very much a limit most preflight software will fix to, if preflight encounters lines thinner than .25pt, it will go ahead and make it .25pt...

...that is of course if you use a print provider who knows that lines thinner than .25pt is a risk not worth taking, the best print providers will set up their workflow to automatically fix these issues, amongst others, and rightly so too...

Andrew

 

[treddie]

Yes, too small for print, but I build construction lines in my work a lot (for references, perspective lines, etc.), and they really are necessary when working on detail areas. They aren't meant for print and they are more flexible than traditional guidelines (for instance you can color them differently or give them a dashed appearance when things get really complex and you need something bolder than a guideline, since guideline line weight is zoom independent).

 

[apepp]

...yes, i see, then that would matter in that case, definitely...

...the only other thing i can think of is knowing that a re-install of CS3 hasn't worked, then i would consider re-install the system software too...

...i know, a nightmare really, unless your stringent with backups then perhaps a tad less painful...

...and if that doesn't work then CS2 it is...

...i know that if this happened on my mac, then i would confirm to you that this is most likely a global problem, but i can't, and neither would adobe probably...

...so if it doesn't work on a fresh system install then most likely it is a deep seated bug in illustrator specific to very certain conditions that even adobe know nothing of...

...and if it is happening on a colleagues mac as well, then perhaps there is a third party plugin causing a problem that you both have installed for illustrator, or other system function, that i don't have or that millions of others don't have...

...and therefore not witnessing this oddity...

Andrew

 

[treddie]

The worst nightmare for software devel...the errors that don't come up all of the time are the hardest to solve. I like your idea about maybe a 3rd party plugin issue. Now I have to think about what is common to my PC and their MACs plugwise, which could only be Hotdoor CADtools. The only other plug I use is CADgate for IGES import, which I know they don't have. Just for the hell of it, I am going to remove both and see what happens.

Full system rebuild WOULD be a real pain.

 

[treddie]

Just dawned on me that I had tested for the problem after CS3 install but before 3rd party plugin installs, and the problem was still there.