Expert: Amy - 10/10/2006

Question
I see where there was an answer to a similar issue about "not enough memory to place the file" error.  However, this solutions seems oriented towards a single file issue.  My user however cannot open any non .ai files.  He cannot copy/paste from PS to AI either.  The user has quite a large library.

I have personally tried the following:
- deleted aipref
- reinstalled AI
- uninstalled entire CS and reinstalled

I personally am not an avid PS user, but as a tech this problem falls in my lap.

Answer
Hi Brent,

First of all, he shouldn't be pasting images into Illustrator, really. He should be placing image file.  But that does give me a clue that either his clipboard settings are corrupt or wrong or the file format filters that must be installed at installation are not present or corrupt. Can he paste TEXT?

I read your question and saw you did this but wanted to make sure you did it with Illustrator not running. Quit AI, delete the AIprefs file, and restart Illustrator. You'll want to tell him that's the first thing you always do when troubleshooting AI. It fixes many things.

Then go to Edit > Preferences > Plug-ins and Scratch Disk and make sure the plug-ins folder is indeed present.  If not, re-target it. You may want to re-target it even if it shows up correctly.

Also, make sure you've got a decent size LOCAL volume selected for the scratch disk.

Then, in the Files & Clipboard section of the preferences, toggle the options for the clipboard format. This is very often the answer to any issues dealing with copying and pasting. AICB and PDF, one off, one on, etc.

You can also go to that plug-ins folder and make sure that the file format filters are present.

There should be a couple PhotoShop formats, TIFF, SVG, and a handful of others. I don't know if CS2 does this but in older versions there were two format folders, standard and additional. They may have been condensed into one now.

If you've got a specific example of a file format that he cannot place, please let me know. You can write me at AmyLynPace@yahoo.com, all right?

Amy Pace