Open Illustrator (.ai) files in Affinity Designer 2 with objects/vectors outside the canvas/artboards.

[Ferarri Red]

So I have been pretty desperate since I bought Affinity Suite and decided to switch from Adobe CC, because I have tons of work in Adobe Illustrator (been using for 10yrs+) where are multiple objects or vectors outside the canvas – and I'm sure I'm not the only one with this HUGE issue. The problem is it's absolutely not possible to open .ai files in Affinity Designer 2 correctly with every data made in the file. I found some old forums QA (from 2015) where someone says it's just not possible. But my question is: Did really no one found a way in 9 years how to open .ai file in Designer 2 with everything included in the original file? 

The only way seems to be using Illustrator again and manually re-saving EVERYTHING with resizing the canvas/artboards all over the places where are my objects and vectors... Sorry Affinity devs, I really appreacite that you made and outstanding competition to the Adobe which is on a throne for a really long time. But this feature not resolved after that many years is simply incomprehensible. 

So my final question: Is it really not possible to open .ai files in Designer 2 with objects/vectors outside the canvas/artboards in 2024? (Without the need of manually re-saving original .ai files with expanded canvas/artboards).

Thank you for you answers.

Edited October 7, 2024 by Ferarri Red

[Hangman]

Hi @Ferarri Red and welcome to the forums,

I'm pretty sure the answer is 'No' because you'd see them in the Layers Panel but if you go to View > View Mode and uncheck Clip to Canvas, are the objects outside the Canvas also missing...

[walt.farrell]

Affinity cannot use the native data in a .ai file, but depends on the contents of the "compatibility" PDF that Illustrator can embed in the file. Illustrator does not include objects outside the Artboards in that PDF, and therefore they are not available to Affinity applications.

[Ferarri Red]

@Hangman I wish it was that simple, this was the first option I've tried...

[Hangman]

6 minutes ago, Ferarri Red said:

I wish it was that simple, this was the first option I've tried...

@walt.farrell's feedback above provides the reason why this doesn't unfortunately work in Affinity Designer...

[Apollo]

So did you ever find a solution to ai vector artwork outside the canvas? I did not make the jump to affinity yet, but I have tons of .ai files with artwork out side the canvas. What are your general thoughts on making the jump to affinity? I've been working with adobe sw for + 15 years now. thx, Apollo

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, Apollo said:

So did you ever find a solution to ai vector artwork outside the canvas?

As per what @walt.farrell said above, Affinity cannot read any data in AI's proprietary *.ai file format other than the embedded 'compatibility' PDF if it was enabled when saving the file. But since Adobe decided not to include off-canvas objects in that PDF, there is no way for Affinity to access it.

So I think the only workaround would be to either move the off-canvas stuff into it & save a copy with the compatibility mode enabled, or to separately copy each off-canvas object & paste it into your Affinity document.

Obviously, neither is very practical if you have tons of files to bring into Affinity.