Tiff Export Problems

[mapinguy]

I work with very large files in illustrator (wall maps). To stay under the rasterization limit, I need to split the file into thirds and export each third separately and then stich the tiffs back together in photoshop.

This is not ideal, but it's liveable.

The problem is that I just got a new powerful (in my opinion) system with 6GB of Ram and a quad core 2.6 processor. However, the tiff export is taking MUCH longer than it used to on my old 1GB RAM laptop. I played with the windows system paging file and illy scratch disk and can't seem to get my new system anywhere near the tiff export speed of the old laptop. It's not a small difference either (about 90 seconds for a big tiff on the laptop and 12-15 minutes on the new system).

The only thing I can think of is my new system runs on 64bit vista opposed to 32bit xp on the laptop...but I doubt that's it because everything else is much faster on the new system...only the tiff export is slow.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[mapinguy]

Ha, just after I wrote this, I tried one more thing that fixed it completely: Run illy in compatibility mode with windows XP sp2. Now its back to it's normal speed.

 

[apepp]

...typically illustrator files can be saved with PDF compatibility, assuming the artwork is within the art board bounds, it will show on screen as PDF...

...with this in mind photoshop can render these files to a specified resolution (via drag and drop or "file > open" and navigating to the native .ai files)...

...this would save you the bother of stitching files together all the time...

...depending on what you define as "very large" it probably is going to be a resources intensive operation to render, whether you import directly to photoshop or otherwise...


>>> "I played with the windows system paging file" <<<

...lots of conflicting information about whether this should be on, off or even played with, but really it is best to let vista manage it, i also believe that there is a limit to what this can be anyway, 4GB or something, so trying to set 6GB memory to a 18GB paging (3 x RAM) wouldn't work...


>>> "about 90 seconds for a big tiff on the laptop and 12-15 minutes on the new system" <<<

...assuming your trying to render the same piece of art work?

andrew