Illustrator 28.4 does not preserve SVG object hierarchy
Starting with Illustrator 28.4, the object hierarchy is not preserved when saving and re-opening an SVG file. Many groups are created for no apparent reason.
See this link for examples: https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/illustrator-28-4-svg-export-does-not-preserve-hierarchy/td-p/14871718#M3695
This makes Illustrator completely impractical for editing SVG files. I will have to stay at 28.3 until this error is fixed.
Johan Kotlinski
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The team has verified this current problem to be a regression break and intends to push the fix into the next Beta build.
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Not yet. The next public release is scheduled on November, but I know nothing about if the fix is going to make it there. As soon as I get any info on this, I will update the status.
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Thanks for the update!
Do you know which public release the fix will end up in? -
Johan, the fact no major problem with this happened in 16 years doesn’t change the fact SVG is not native to Ai. It still imports and exports the format, rather than load and save. Ai TRIES to maintain the structure, but never GARANTUEES it. It’s not a policy, it’s a fact. Monika at forums is rather correct with this one, and the team confirms it.
This particular issue is indeed a bug — so thank you for being persistent here and at forums.
It is going to be fixed, but, again, don’t really rely on the matching. -
Egor, your comment surprises me. Our company has been using Illustrator for editing SVG files since 2008. What is the motivation that this should no longer be supported starting with 28.4? Is this Adobe policy?
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Well, SVG is not native Illustrator format — AI is.
So on 'opening' SVGs are actually 'imported', that is translated. If you need to edit SVG without recreating their structure, you should use an editor that actually saves to SVG, rather than exports (which is what Ai actually doing).This sounds harsh, but that’s the reality, I am sorry. I very much doubt anything would change.
Anyway, thanks for not being silent about it. I will try to make the team aware.