Is there a maximum advisable file size to work with in AF designer?

[Gert B]

I'm currently working on a series of posters that I've set up on 14 artboards in one afdesign file. Each artboard contains several text and pixel layers. The filesize is currently around 800 mb and that will probably double as I continue to add pixel layers. Will I be likely to run into trouble working with a file that large, or will I be fine?

I'm working on an iMac (late 2015), 3,1 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 16 GB 1867 MHz DDR3 memory and Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200 1536 MB graphic card.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this.

Edited October 27, 2019 by Gert B
typo

[firstdefence]

The limitations will likely rest on your systems processing power and the max file dimensions (The maximum file size in pixels is 256000 x 256000) not the actual file size/weight.

[Fixx]

With Designer file size in pixels should not matter too much as work is mostly done with vectors and with posters actual pixel layer dpi can be kept moderate, like 150 dpi. Still, file size can balloon but my old system with 16 GB RAM can easily handle projects with file sizes more that 5 GB.

[Gear maker]

When my work tends to bog down the computer is more on the usage of certain tools.  If a large number of layers use fx (Layer Effects) especially 3D and Bevel/Emboss then AD will start acting slow to do the redraw.  I suspect that the gradient when used extensively, or maybe it's the complexity of the gradients used, may also help slowing down the redraws.  The further it's zoomed in the more the slowness appears.  I've had drawings with thousands of layers that acted fine and drawings with less than a thousand the were very sluggish.  Drawings with 40,000 layers have worked.  I don't think there is an absolute maximum layer count.  And my computer is much less endowed than what you are using.

I do find that if the Undo limit is set at the default after several hours of working I get a slowness that does not occur if I limit the undo's to 400 to 500.  And I've never found that I have wanted to undo any where near 400 steps.

If I run into sluggish operations then I split my drawing up into two or three working drawings and have one that I don't do a lot of work with that combines the two or three working drawings into a final one.  But that is pretty rare.