Hi! New on the site, and I signed up specifically to ask the best way to import one .psd file into another, including the paths on the paths palette.
Almost all of my Photoshop drawings make heavy use of vector paths, which I then stroke using using PS natural-media brushes and the "stroke paths" function (usually with "simulate pressure" checked.) Also, my .psd files tend to be, um, HUGE... and I typically break up a whole drawing into separate PS files and then assemble all of them into one final finished graphic.
I have no trouble moving raster stuff from file to file. Just put all the layers I want to transfer into a group and drag the group to the other .psd. Works fine, including layer masks. But I have not found a good way to get vector paths from the Paths palette of one .psd to another. Of course I can select paths and copy them to the Win clipboard, switch to the other .psd, and paste them back in. The drawback to that method is that I lose the correct size relation between the results of previously done "stroke paths" operations (on raster layers) and the paths that generated them. Sometimes the copied-in paths are way too large, sometimes way too small, never Just Right.
As I'm sure most of you know, if you resize an entire Photoshop document from within PS, any paths it contains are correctly resized along with everything else. That's no longer true after grouped raster layers are dragged over to another document but paths are copied and pasted in. The size connection is lost. (Location placement, too.)
I WANT those paths! After I bring a piece of a drawing into the full final drawing, what looked good when I was working on it separately often doesn't look right any longer and I want to re-stroke those paths using different brush diameter, opacity, etc., or maybe even a completely different brush.
I've tried bring outside .psd files in as smart objects with the Place command but either that doesn't work or I'm not doing it right. Using Place, the paths in the Placed document don't come in at all.
I'll be very grateful for any hints or strategies any of you knowledgeable folks can give me. Thanks very much!
Jim
Note, PS CS3 extended on Win 7 pro.