NestSmith — Illustrator and PDF files

• A huge rectangle came in with my Illustrator file.

  That is the artboard, which Illustrator writes into the PDF like any other path. NestSmith detects and removes it automatically.

• My .ai file comes in as loose shapes with no groups. Why?

  Illustrator keeps groups in its own private data, which never reaches the PDF inside an .ai file. No program other than Illustrator can read them, so every shape arrives on its own. This is a limit of the format, not a bug.

• What should I do instead?

  Export an SVG from Illustrator — it carries groups properly and gives the best nest. If you have to use the .ai, shift-click the shapes you want held together on the sheet and press Group.