I'm having some issues with it, where would I go to discuss them?

This forum is the correct one :) Pretty much any bug-related issues go here.

I agree that the memory issues are a big drag. I can't go as in depth as I would like to because of them.

One thing I found that helped a bit sometimes is to optimize the shapes by removing points I don't need. I do it in flash. I would like to know if there is a way to do it in illustrator. Well, I mean an overall way to optimize a shape. I know I could remove points by hand in illustrator.

I don't have these issues with any other piece of software I have either.

@liddle_r - if you create a group of shapes from SS (not your own) it still drags badly. And I would assume that those shapes are optimized for SS.

Some other things SS needs IMHO:

- A color picker for when you're using a custom canvas with more than 5 colors. There is currently no way to pick colors you have already used, and you cannot copy and past the color codes either. Very frustrating.

- A way to name groups.

Agreed: you can't optimize the shapes in Seamless. But, I imagine it was your other shape that was more complex though of course I could be wrong!

In that particular case, it was one custom shape (teardrop for the paisley) and all the rest were circles from SS. Teardrop has 4 points.

I mean in that particular group that takes long minutes to do anything with in SS.

The other custom shape in there, the skull...selects and moves lickety split. So I really think it's the numbers of objects you have selected at a time that kills SS.

Yes. I also have troubles with multiple repeated shapes as well. So I think it can be either too many shapes or points. Well, and I guess the too many shapes adds up to points anyway.

And these aren't super complex shapes.

It's a killer though. It just isn't usable for anything much as it is.

I'm still having problems importing shapes. Today I'm getting '"Refl.svg" might cause Seamless to crash because it is such a large file.' with a choice to confirm or cancel.

I thought I had read previously that there wasn't a size limit on uploaded svg's. If I got that wrong, and there is one, what is the limit? Also, is there some kind of guideline as to total size limit for combined elements in one Seamless pattern?

I get that also kalindy, with larger files.

Seamless Studio could be a great tool, but without a multiple color palette on a custom size and without better shape/memory/processing/whatever management, it just is not usable. :( Other suggestions above would be great too!

I'm especially surprised not to find a way to import a ColourLovers Palette.

There's SO MUCH potential with this, please don't give up on it!

deb

Gosh, great point Sysmom. Why in the world can't we import palettes???

Okey dokey. I have another problem. It's entirely possible that the problem is my lack of skill with Adobe Illustrator rather than a problem with Seamless Studio, but I've tried everything I can think of and I just keep getting the same result.

My (attempted) pattern is created from a photo. In AI, I've reduced the image to 5 colors, and created and saved an svg of all like colored objects, so I have 4 "shapes" to import to SS. I successfully uploaded the "layers" into SS (Brian had said that the warning comes on any time you're trying to upload a file bigger than 150kb, but it should upload it anyway if you tell it to go ahead, which I did.) What I want to do is draw the shapes and stack up the 4 layers on a background, but when I get to the 2nd layer (and sometimes the 1st layer, depending on which I start with), the shape won't draw, and I get the following error message, "Exceeded maximum pattern size. To add more shapes, shapes must be removed."

It seems to me like I haven't saved the svg correctly to use in SS. Anyone have any tips?

How complex are each of your layers?

How did you go from photo to vector (meaning did you draw each layer or did you use something to "vectorize" the photo automatically?)

I select each shape, and copy it. Create a new document, paste the shape in then save it as a .svg. Do that for each shape then import each one into SS.

I think there could be a group for seamless studio.. also to share shapes

meanwhile there's a page here - I put all the information I find

liddle_r,
I wasn't sure if it was me you were asking, but in case it is, I went back and tried to figure out what I did, but I'm having trouble remembering or re-creating. I don't know if I started with GIMP or Illustrator, but I had posterized the photo, reduced it to 5 colors, changed it to gray-scale. Then I thought I had picked out all items of like gray value, copied, and pasted into a new Illustrator file, for each of 5 values, and saved for web as an SVG. However, I can't remember how I did it. I'm not sure if that answers your question or not.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
k

Hey kalindy,

Yep. I was askin' ya. Sorry I didn't make that more clear.

What I've found with Seamless Studio is that it really can only handle just so many vector points. The more complex (and more points) I am working with the slower it
becomes or stops working.

So, I imagine your different layer have lots of vector points (due to the nature of photographs). You could try using some filters in photo shop first to smooth out the lines of the photo although you will step away from it being super realistic.

You could also hand draw each color section and that would probably help but again won't be as photorealistic.

It definitely seems like some folks can do more with Seamless. I imagine it has something to do with their computers and how much memory they have.

Here are a couple of my photo attempts:







Which I feel like are only somewhat successful (plus it was more work than I wanted to do!)

Can you post the image you are working with and/or some of your layers?

Cheers!
Rachel