Illustrator Plug-ins & Scratch Disks - Questions

[Sign_Boy]

Hey all,

Illustrator has a habit of being a bit of a PITA when working on larger files. I was wondering how do you all have your Illustrator Plug-ins & Scratch Disks set up? Any other tips on helping it run faster and smoother? Thanks !!

 

[jesuisunegraphiste]

Hi! What is Illustrator doing? Is it just lagging?

 

[jfiscus]

Faster processor, more RAM and SSDs are going to get you working faster. I set my primary scratch disk to my 2nd hard drive for all my Adobe apps and don't use it for much else besides putting some personal (disposable) files on to be sure there is plenty of space.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Faster processor, more RAM and SSDs are going to get you working faster. I set my primary scratch disk to my 2nd hard drive for all my Adobe apps and don't use it for much else besides putting some personal (disposable) files on to be sure there is plenty of space.

That right there.

Also, sometimes may need to close out and re open the app as well. I have found that the longer I've had either Ai or Ps open in one session, sometimes a restart of the program helps.

 

[oksigns]

Scratch disk is a separate drive. Mine happens to be a hybrid SSD/HD, but the point is that it is a separate drive that is only accessed occasionally and does not get hit by the OS and native apps running.

Running Adobe CC and staying up to date, I make sure my gpu drivers are relatively updated. I depend on GPU acceleration wherever I can get.

Lots of system memory too. I leave Illustrator, PS, and ID, open all day. A chunk of my system memory goes to the page file cause windows is going to manage resources how it wants outside of what Adobe products do, so for long term performance, a healthy page file is good.

 

[Johnny Best]

Sometime you need to purge the clipboard, by closing down Illustrator. I am a Mac user but I think Windows has a clipboard viewer.

 

[WrapYourCar]

Better to use photoshop for lots of plugin work.. flatten when possible.. save more frequently.. get a beast computer too. I prefer mac.. more stability.

 

[Johnny Best]

The only plug ins I use in Illustrator are Astutegraphics, dynamic sketch and a couple others, never had a problem with them slowing anything down when using large files, but like WrapYour Car says, I use Photoshop for a lot of large files and flatten.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I prefer mac.. more stability.

Specs of the computer are going to be more of a concern rather then it's a Mac or Windows machine. The only exception to that would be the update cycle that Windows now forces people to do (unless they do some registry edits, unless that was changed with the "Creator's Update"). Best thing to do there would be to deny internet to a production rig (which is good in so many ways).

I run Linux as a host and Windows as a guest with nary a stability issue (I even edit and render video using Premier Pro within the VM, not typically an advised process given how demanding it can be), Xeon processor and ECC Ram have more to do with it then the OS. Particularly since this rig (and really all my desktop rigs are Linux rigs with Windows VMs) has the added resource demands of VMs.

The only plug ins I use in Illustrator are Astutegraphics, dynamic sketch and a couple others, never had a problem with them slowing anything down when using large files

I haven't really experienced them slowing things down and I use all of their plugins (Sketch being my most used as well).

 

[jfiscus]

Also, if you are working on multiple layers and don't need to see a layer at the current time, turning it to "not seen" will speed up Illustrator and even help cut down time saving the document until you are finished working and need to to turn those layers back on for the "final save".