For the past few months I have not been able to open .ai files created with the most recent version of Adobe Illustrator. I opened a ticket with tech support and they are COMPLETELY USELESS. It doesn't help that they don't speak and understand English.
The files I can't open will open and close just fine with Illustrator. However, they just hang when I try to open in Coreldraw 2019. I have all the latest patches loaded and I have uninstalled and reinstalled Coreldraw. If I open these files with Illustrator and save them to a legacy format then Coreldraw will open the file. This shows that they are NOT compatible with ai files like they advertise. WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO FIX THIS BUG COREL???????
I use both CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator extensively. But I send any AI-generated artwork to CorelDRAW in AI CS6 format. Nothing later than that. Plus I have to make sure certain kinds of effects are "flattened" or "expanded." Some effects, such as Illustrator's Art Brush and Pattern Brush effects, don't translate at all to CorelDRAW if they're still live. The effects must be expanded into editable paths. The newer effects in Illustrator CC, such as Freeform Gradients, don't come across at all.CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator have a good amount of overlap of similar features. But there are enough differences, both subtle and major, that I find it impossible for one application to be a complete replacement for the other. My shop is in an environment where we have to handle a lot of Corel-generated files and whole lot of Adobe-generated artwork as well (particularly from clients). The only reliable solution for us to run both programs. It's a more expensive "solution," but at least we're not trying to force one application into being something it is not.
Well, Corel claims ai file compatibility. That was true until Illustrator 2020. Since then can't do anything with it. Corel needs to get off their asses and fix the issue.