How to export from Illustrator to Photoshop and keep layers from flattening

[A***@adobeforums.com]

I am using CS2. I am trying to export to Photoshop an Illustrator file with 11 simple layers. I want to maintain the layer structure. I keep getting the message "Some containers in the AI document have been flattened." and when I open the Photoshop document there is only one layer.

When exporting, I have chosen Write Layers, Maximum Editability and Anti-Alias (no text in the file). I have also turned "Isolate Blending" off and on for all the layers. I have tried with the file as an .ai file and an .eps file. I know I am missing something small here, but I can't remember what it is.

[S***@adobeforums.com]

Export to CMYK if your AI document is in CMYK, same holds true for RGB. Do not use any transparency options within Illustrator (Opacity/Blend modes) in any way. These are what causes the flattening of AI layers.

[A***@adobeforums.com]

Transparencies are 100%. I do have some blends. I don't think blends are the probem.

[S***@adobeforums.com]

Blends shouldn't be but blending modes can be.

[W***@adobeforums.com]

When you export to Photoshop Illustrator tries to perserve the layers.

That is "tries to!"

In most cases it does but not necessarily all the layers.

[W***@adobeforums.com]

Blending modes do not seemingly cause the flattening of the layers.

Did you try as a .psd?

t sounds like you did but you wrote you tried .ai and .eps?

[A***@adobeforums.com]

I am exporting to a .psd. I tried originally from an Illustrator .eps version and then an .ai version, trying to see if that made any difference. If I try to export 11 layers, I get one flattened layer in Photoshop. If I turn off two of the simplest layers (which don't have any blends or transparencies), and export, I get a .psd file with 3 layers (2 top layers from the .ai file and the other 7 layers flattened into 1).

[G***@adobeforums.com]

There is something in the top layer of those 7 layers that get flattened that the Photoshop parser does not like, and it most probably involves some level of transparency. If that layer has any objects with transparency - drop shadow effect, blending mode, etc., - select those objects using the Layers palette - the problem objects will havea shaded circle there - and flatten the transparency. Once you've eliminated all objects with transparency (remember, once you successfully get your layered file into Photoshop, you can apply any transparency or blending modes there), try exporting to PSD.

Still gives a flattened file? My bet is, somewhere in that top layer of the layers that get flattend, there is an object that has Overprint turned on. The Photoshop parser thinks this is an object with transparency applied - but there's no real easy way of tracking it down in Illustrator. If the problem object is a lighter hue, set to overprint something else, turning on Overprint Preview (View menu) can help find it. But generally, Overprint gets used on objects filled or stroked with 100% black, which makes it almost impossible to find visually. You can open the Attributes palette and select each possible problem object and see if Overprint is checked, and then turn it off. Or you can Select All, and then click in the Overprint Stroke and Overprint Fill check boxes successively until both are turned off for everything selected.

[A***@adobeforums.com]

It was the overprint selection causing the problem. The problem layers didn't have any blends, transparency or effects, but they did have overprint.

I rasterized all the layers that had blends, deselected overprint for all the layers/objects that had it and then the file exported with all it's layers.

Thanks for the help. This was a file built by someone else and it was making me nuts trying to get it right.