Im using inkscape to view and manipulate files from a client sending adobe illustrator. Im having trouble toggling between layers in the files once i open them in inkscape. I've tried both opening and importing the files. Do yall know whether opening .ai folders in inkscape maintains the layers from adobe?

thanks!

I don't know offhand. If you can't share that file, could your client make a test file for us?

When you say "trouble toggling between layers" what do you mean exactly? Do you mean you can't select objects in some layers? Or you can't draw on certain layers? Or is everything is in one layer? Or something else?

hmmm lets see. a client sent .ai files with an image consisting of 2-3 parts. We need to print and cut each of these layers separately (we're using the images for stencils, if thats helpful). But when i open or import the files to inkscape it seems that the image is imported as one layer. Does that help clarify?

I know this problem. It occurs when I open plain SVG file in inkscape. I am not sure, is this the same problem. But this could be solved this way:
Sender in his oiginal file Group all objects in one layer in one group. And then the same recipe in next layer, and next..... Then you get file where is every layer group of objects. And then you can restore layers in inkscape.

Aha, maybe ilustrator already made it at exporting to plain SVG. Try to ungroup it and then see if you have more groups, each for one layer.

Oh, that's a good idea, Ponny!

Would that work for you, 8stars?

Does your printer or cutter recognize the layers? I would be surprised if it does, but I don't have either a printer or any kind of cutter machine.

Are all the templates on top of each other, in one layer? How many layers are there supposed to be? If just a few, can you just drag them apart for printing and cutting? If there are several layers.... I wonder if there's an extension for this....? Hhm, not that I can find. There's an extension for the opposite, I think, saving the layers on export, but I can't find one for importing layers.

I wonder if your client could send SVG files, if the layers would be saved? I don't know for sure, but I guess Illustrator should be able to save SVG files.

Yes, Illustrator saves as SVG. But layers in Ai are likely converted to groups, um... because SVG doesn't really have layers.