Estimating file size takes 10+ minutes on large, complicated files

[themapsmith]

I've got a complicated design for a 24x36x300dpi poster. When exporting, the "Estimating File Size" dialog says "calculating." If I don't hit save very quickly, or if I make any changes (file type, resolution, quality, etc.), then my CPU does the following and the program is unresponsive:

 

400% for 50 seconds

100% for over 10 minutes

 

I'm able to interact with the dialog after the initial period, but that would kick off another 50 seconds of 400% CPU.

 

Eventually the result is shown : "Estimated File Size: 10.16 MB"

 

When I hit "Save" to create a PNG-24, the CPU goes to 400% for a minute, then to 100%. The Export Item dialog doesn't show any progress. I'll let you know if it finishes. *Update: it took about 10 minutes to export*

 

I'm on a 2015 13" MBP, El Cap 10.11.6, 2.9GHz i5, 8GB RAM

 

Here's the file

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ko43ev14mv8zg3p/PHL-alt.afdesign?dl=0

[Lee D]

Hi themapsmith,

 

Welcome to the forums.

 

I'm able to reproduce this using your file on my system, I've passed this over to the developers to look into further.

 

Thanks for letting us know.

 

L

[Sean-H]

Did this ever get addressed, I am still seeing this in 2021

[lacerto]

I expanded all the clipped cyan, magenta, yellow and black 67% opaque dots and merged each color into a curves object. The size of the Designer file increased from 698KB to about 58MB, but exporting to PNG took about 29 seconds producing a 3.5MB file, and exporting a digital PDF (high res or small res, no difference because nothing is rasterized) took about 9 seconds, producing a 22.8MB file. File size calculations took about the same time as actual exports.  

As for a 300dpi raster file with these dimensions (24 x 36 in), this is decent file size and creation performance, but I am not sure what to think about a 23MB PDF when nothing is rasterized! I took it in Adobe Acrobat Pro and optimized the file, and the file size dropped to 5.3MB (still pretty large, but acceptable).

EDIT: I did not at first try this with the original file as I assumed that the mentioned problems could be reproduced, but as I now tried, I did not experience any delays in file size calculations or production. The problem with the file was that its composition caused rasterization of vector based shapes. Expanding the color dot strokes fixes this, but also increases the .afdesign file size, and as mentioned, creates rather large vector files.