Strange Illustrator problem with Dielines

[prepressguru]

Hi All

I have this strange issue with illustrator files with dielines where a piece of the dieline will go missing if it is on the document edge when you export it to PDF.

Ok here is my example. A 10x10 document with a dieline as simple as 4 rounded corners. The dieline will sit exactly on the document trim edges. Everything looks fine. Export it to PDF with crops and bleed etc. and maybe 1 of the edges of the dieline will go missing. Even when the artwork under the dieline may have bleed and goes past the trim the dieline still goes missing?..

Any ideas?

Thanks

p

[dabob]

What version Illustrator is it???? If CS4 or later you could add a bleed amount to the document and it would probably take care of the problem.

[prepressguru]

Hey sorry I forgot to mention it happens in both CS3 and CS4. The file is built correctly in illustrator with proper bleeds. Only the exported PDF displays the issue. Any part of the artwork which needs bleed does show. But the dieline since is land directly on the page trims sometimes does not show up. I have a feeling it has something to do with the artbox of this layer being the same size as the page and it cuts off the dieline. Just a guess

p

[Sev]

Try drawing a box that is larger than the artboard, with a color of none. This would create your bounding box to be larger than the artboard, so nothing inside of the bounding should get cut off.

-Sev

[Lukas Engqvist]

When Illustrator sets the artbox automatically it goes by the most extreme anchor points. If you add anchor points at the extremities, or make the art box just bigger than you art is visually you should se things work. (You get this problem with auto-fit logos being clipped too.)

[prepressguru]

Thanks gang. I was on the right track with the artbox. What threw me was the layers. I am guessing even though the dieline and the actual artwork are on separate layers they still have individual artboxes. Because the artwork below the dieline usually never displays the problem.

p

[prepressguru]

Hi gang, well my problem still persists. I had another job with a dieline which sits right on the page size/trim. And again part of the dieline sitting on the edge disappeared (illustsrator magic). So I put a box around my whole layer with the dieline on it but made it a 1/8 larger. But still did not work. I have a picture so you can see.

Any help would be appreciated, I think this is a bug though.

[eskopdl]

If it is a Media box issue on exporting out of Ai this may be worth your while to try, it is free.
Go to Download free software & plugins and download the EskoArtwork Data Exchange plug-in *. Go through the steps to download, install the plugins.

In your Ai Window Menu you'll see an EskoArtwork item. Choose the Trim Box/Media Box option.

Look in your Ai Help menu. There you'll see EskoArtwork Help. Select EskoArtwork Data Exchange and choose the bottom topic in the list which will guide you on how to use the Trim Box/Media Box tool.

Once you have set your Trim Box/Media Box go to the Ai File Menu/Export and choose to export your file as a Normalized PDF choosing Document Trimbox as the option. Open the file in Acrobat and check the results.

If the problem you are having is Media box related this should help. Good luck.

[prepressguru]

Thanks for the tip, I will let you know how it works out.

p

[Prepress_Parasite]

What settings are you using for your pdf export?