Opening some but not all PC Freehand MX files, in Snow Leopard, crashes FreeHand

[infobleep]

Hi there

I have Freehand MX files which I've created on the PC version over many years and some files are documents modified from other Freehand files and re-saved, again on my PC.

However when I open some of this files on my Mac, running Snow Leopard, it crashes out. This doesn't occur with all my files, just some. The same files still open on my PC version of Freehand, both in XP and Windows 7, the latter running virtually on my Mac, inside Virtualbox. I can also create new documents okay in the Freehand running on Snow Leopard.

Is it possible that the PC documents have corrupted? Has anyone else come across this?

Part of the crash message is:
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000036395f34
Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Kind regards

Infobleep

 

[Moof1904]

I've had considerable trouble opening FreeHand docs in SL. I keep my Leopard drive in my MP just for rebooting and working in FreeHand if I need to. Sucks but it's a solution and I'm still not as good with illustrator as I am with FreeHand.

 

[infobleep]

I've had considerable trouble opening FreeHand docs in SL. I keep my Leopard drive in my MP just for rebooting and working in FreeHand if I need to. Sucks but it's a solution and I'm still not as good with illustrator as I am with FreeHand.

Thanks for the reply. I have used Illustrator quite a few times in the past but I find I am quicker at doing things in FreeHand. I'm not saying that Illustrator doesn't have some great features. It's just that it lacks certain things which slow down my working compared to using FreeHand.

I've never had a copy of Leopard so can stick to using Windows 7 to do the job. Would rather I was make more use of Snow Leopard but if I can't I can't then I can't.

 

[pedrocasilva]

They're different programs really, with different appliances and strenghts; doing simple publishing in illustrator is nuts as is the way it handles multiple pages (and it's fine) just like doing organic illustration in freehand is... well, hard. Illustrator is a vectorial illustration software... Freehand is not really that; and it's really good at workflows.

Adobe was really douchy to discontinue one for the other, and sadly I'll have to hold on to freehand for the time being, despite knowing how to work on Illustrator, because they're different (thank you adobe!)

 

[pedrocasilva]

Found a solution to the problem:

The fix is to use the Freehand Clip Art Viewer, which is located in the application's own folder. If you browse the hard drive with this utility, then you will see thumbnails of your files -- simply double-click on them to open.

Also: you did this, right?

-> http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/504/cpsid_50468.html

(because the solution above might only apply if you don't apply the official solution from adobe's site)

 

[infobleep]

Thank you for your replies pedrocasilva. I did install the adobe updates and I will use the clip art route in future. Not something I had thought to try.

I agree Illustrator is more aimed at Illustrations but as a cartographer I found FreeHand much easier to use when creating maps. Much more so than Illustrator, although I've created maps using that as well. This story is repeated by many cartographers who say FreeHand is easier to work with.

When doing non-map work, which is nothing too taxing as I'm not a graphic designer, I still find FreeHand easier to work with. I create simple leaflets in FreeHand, as well as greetings cards. I could do this in Illustrator but for my needs I find it easier to do the job in FreeHand.