ArcGIS 9.3 & 10 export to illustrator - compound shape problems

[AndyRitchie]

I have a bunch of polygons in a geodatabase that are not overlapping (geology polygons). I have attached an image where the left side is Adobe Illustrator (CS4 or 5 - they both do the same thing) and the right side is ArcGIS (9.3 or 10 - also both do the same thing).

I am running into a problem on export where a large polygon with many voids (gray in right side of attached image) loses the ability to properly mask to display other polygons/voids that it surrounds (gray and brown).

I think this has to do with the number of internal polygons in the large polygon/compound shape, because it doesn't always happen based on the extent I export. Also it doesn't  happen if I export to PDF and open in illustrator (but then there are no layers).

Anyone have any ideas?

[847396730]

Are you releasing the clipping mask once you get into Illustrator?

[AndyRitchie]

Yes. I typically select and delete all of the clipping masks as soon as I open in illustrator.

The PDF export is an OK workaround, but less layer information is preserved (they stay grouped, but not named, and I don't think that subgroups persist).

Again, I think the issue is related to the complexity of the exported polygon layer. If I zoom in past a threshold, all polygons are properly represented. out beyond that threshold, some polygons become compound shapes with the same color as the larger (more vertices) polygon.

[847396730]

Hello! I bet by now you've found a workaround, but thought I'd pass along that Arc misbehaves during Illustrator export if Group Layers are involved.  I had some frustrating issues that were resolved upon ungrouping in Arc and repeating the export.