Object > Pattern > Make gives 'Can't define a new pattern from the current art' message
Discovered in 29.8.1, also seen in beta 30.0.21. Both on MacOS 14.7.6.
- Draw some shapes. Select them.
- Object > Pattern > Make
- "Can't define a pattern from the current art" pops up instead of pattern edit mode.
Dragging the shapes to the Swatch palette still works, luckily, so I can get on with what I want to do, but what the heck?
oookayyy, further exploration reveals that it is something about one particular global color swatch?!? see attached file.
Margaret Trauth
shared this idea
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Does your selection have an embedded image when you get the message, or is it a pure vector art that triggers this?
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KUNJ SHROFF commented
There’s an issue with Pattern Making in versions 30.6 and 29.8. When I go to Object > Pattern > Make, Illustrator displays the message: "Can't define a new pattern from the current art." This was not an issue in earlier versions.
As a workaround, I have to save the artwork as an image, place it back into Illustrator, drag and drop it onto the artboard, ungroup it, and only then am I able to create a pattern. This makes the pattern creation process much more difficult and time-consuming than it used to be.
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I confirm! Ai refuses to create a pattern from a piece of embedded raster with Object > Pattern > Make, UNTIL we create a pattern with drag-n-drop. And then it 'hey, I can! wow!' and allows it 🤦♂️
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Margaret Trauth
commented
1. Drop an image into Illustrator.
2. In the Links palette, make sure this image is embedded.
3. Select the image. Object > Pattern > Make. A dialog box pops up saying that I can't make a pattern from this art. Try again several times with different images, keep failing.
4. Drag the image into the swatch palette. A pattern is made from it.
5. Start writing this bug report.
6. Try doing Object > Pattern > Make again to get the precise text of the error in step 3. Suddenly it works.
7. wtf?!?I can't get this to start happening again now. Maybe it'll happen again if I reboot the system? I might try later, I wanna get some work done here. Sorry this isn't a solid repro, maybe it'll get added to some other bug reports later and help nail this down?
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Del Vanderver
commented
This bug is so strange. I Choose make pattern and get the error and then I do it again and again sometimes it will work and other times it continues to give me the error.
I get the error whether I'm using swatches are just RGB values.
I'm using a MacBook Pro M2 with 32gb RAM and the most recent version of Adobe CC and Mac OS 26.
wish Adobe would fix this ASAP. This is an important tool is used a great deal and should be fixed sooner rather than later. -
Ton commented
Beta 30.0 104 gives me the message: "Can't define a new pattern from the current art."
Click OK and try it again and it works. Try it in a new file and it works. Close the beta and try it later, stops working. Click OK and try it again and it works. and so on. -
Works fine for me in Beta 30.0.0.91 on Windows 10...
