Finished artwork using AD and AP, output to PDF..

[homeyJay]

I'm doing a bag for a client and I decided I was going to try and use a combination of AP & AD instead of AD which I'd normally use. I was given a PDF print template and the plan was to overlay the layered artwork for the front and back of the bag over the template and send it to the printer. I've done this a bunch of times on AD with no issues at all. Normally I'd send the printer 2 layered pdfs - one for the front and one for the back of the bag but this time, I decided to embed the AD files into the template artwork which I'd opened in AP. 
Everything looked normal until I'd exported to pdf but when I examined the PDF with Acrobat reader, the 2 embedded AD files (front & back) were completely flattened!

Is there a way around this? I like working in AP and embedding these files but the printer needs layered artwork and using AP seems to flatten the embedded docs.

 

[Alfred]

Instead of embedding the AD files, copy and paste them into the AP (APh or APub?) document. Alternatively, take advantage of the shared file format and simply open them directly in the other app.

[walt.farrell]

I'm pretty sure the problem isn't that you're using Photo. If you did that same thing in Designer, by opening the template and putting a .afdesign document into it, the same thing would happen. When exported, what you get that way is an image of the contents of the file, not the contents themselves.

You would need to Open the Designer file, select everything (easiest in the Layers panel), Copy, then Paste into the template file. 

[homeyJay]

Thanks guys, cut’n’paste worked. Not sure it was worth using AP for this anyway!