I'm making an action for folks at work to use (I'm not well versed enough in scripting to script what I want to do, but an action is passable), and part of this action adds a variable into the open document. The thing is, the variable has to be named a certain thing and it keeps defaulting to Variable1.
Currently I have it set up to create the variable, then open the Variable window and then have a Stop with a note on what to do, but if there's a way to just re-name the variable in the action itself that'd be best (I need this to be as... well, for lack of a better term/phrase, idiot-proof as possible).
Without using a script, is it possible to have an AI action delete an existing variable? I.E. if there's a variable named 'test' by default, can I have an action delete the 'test' variable? I tried recording this but it didn't work and I wasn't able to get consistent results.
I'm attempting to write a batch script to add some layers to a pre-existing image and save a copy. I've gone through the tutorial, and have run the demo code from Basic_Batch with no errors, but my (what I think of as simple) script throws an "Error: eval: unbound variable: ?" It also seems to cascade the error to other scripts, as I then get "unmatched parentheses: 2" errors from what I assume to be the script immediately following my own during Script-Fu load. This occurs whether running from batch or clicking "Refresh Scripts" from the Script-Fu menu.
What I could find on this forum and Google suggests that I may be required to 'define' one or more of my variables before using it, but for the life of me, I can't figure out which one that would be, and the error (reporting that '?' is undefined!?) I've quintuply (probably more ~_^) checked my parenthesis matching, but they look fine to me.
In case this was an encoding issue, I've tried saving my .scm file as both UTF-8 and ANSI. I should also note that I'm running Windows 7 x64 in English-US.
I have a pre-existing graphic uses a stroke with variable with profile (I think) or a special brush to make it look like it's hand drawn. I'd like to apply the same effect to a few new illustrations to keep the style consistent. For whatever reason when I ungroup the graphic and select one of the paths, the stroke weight and variable width profile remain disabled (see pasted toolbar graphic below). The brush still says "Basic" despite the fact that visually it is certainly not the basic brush.
Selected Path
Toolbar (I realize that it says Group instead of Path, but even if I ungroup again and select the path the same options are disabled).
I am setting up illustrations for localization and am running into a problem with loading a modified variable library; for instance, one that has been translated. I getting the message "The incoming variable library is invalid".
I can't seem to find any information on what to do after:
-linking and adding variables and objects in the Variables panel -taking a snapshot -saving the variables library file -copying and translating the variables library file
I use Illustrator CS5 and can not blend variable width strokes in Illustrator. I can not do that even with the same width profiles unless they are expanded. I could not find any questions similar on the net regarding this, but wanted to double check before I just made the necessary changes. I'm a bit confused because Adobe 'help' shows how powerful the blends of objects are, but we can't do them as strokes?
I want to keep the blend as strokes not expand them. What is the best way to view how the blend will look with variable widths without expanding and then 'undoing' a bunch of times.
but is there a hot key for expanding the blend without going into object-blend-expand?
In InDesign I am able to assign a variable showing that page. Example = Page numbers in a book.
Is there a way to do this in Illustrator? Example = Panels for a structure. Labeling the panel with the artboard name.
For now I am doing this manually. I would LOVE to speed the process up.
DETAILS: The artboard names will exist on the artboard itself when printed (very tiny, in an area hidden by metal posts, for ease of assembly at a construction site). I also need the artboard name to show up outside the artboard in a slug area (much larger for easy viewing in the file).
I'd like to just Change the name of a duplicated artboard, and have those pieces of text change themselves, rather then me typing it in two places for every artboard... I can have almost 100 artboards in one file on the structures I work with.
I now understand about serializing the message, and loading and running external scripts via opening, reading, and sending them within the context of BridgeTalk.
I have a palette window which contains a listbox of items that searches and lists the contents of over 400 products. This pic of the template below is typical for all items. The imprint area shown will change depending on the product.
Script #1: When the user selects a product from the list, that selection is used to open a file (illustrator template) for that item that shows a guide path box with height and width information for the imprint area on the product. The currently opened illustrator document contains the artwork they are working on at the time. This artwork is copied and pasted to the newly opened template file.
Script #2: This script contains an array of all the products in the palette list. Within each index of that array, each item will contain the following information:
Example (the name property of each item will match the name of the index box selection from script #1):
var itemArray = new Array(); //p may be saved at index 0 of itemArray var p = new Object(); p.name ="P- Shape P"; p.width = 189; p.height = 103.5; p.pos = [300,564];
I need to send the selection from script #1 to script #2 so I can loop through the array and find a match, at which point the information stored in the properties of the item will be used to scale the art and place it in the correct position on the template. Is there any way to send a variable from script #1 containing the name of the selection via BridgeTalk and have it stored in a variable in script #2? If not, I read somewhere where it might be possible to write/save it to disk and have the second script read it.
I'm on the brink of insanity with creating my diagonal line pattern. I've tried everything I can think of but the pattern is an absolute mess! I want to create a diagonal line pattern but I want the lines not to be uniform. Basically I've made a group of 3 lines and then one separate line on its own, then to repeat this as the picture below. I've used the distribute function so the distances between the lines is identical everywhere. I've then rotated the whole thing exactly 45 degrees and aligned the lines to fit the bounding box in the "make pattern" mode as shown. Yet the resulting pattern is just a mess of overlap ugliness. All I want is for the pattern to literally look as it does in the image on the left, how to sucessfully do this in CS6?
The CS5 online help is pretty tight-lipped about variables … is there an easy way of pulling in the save date as a variable? ID can do it; even Word can do it :-}
how I can use a variable as the target for a Save as PDF option in Illustrator javascript. the variables work fine where there is no enumerated value for the property i.e. opts.generateThumbnails but I can figure out how to get it working opts.compatibility or other properties with enumerated values using a variable as the definition.
The code snippet example below will always give an 'Enumerated Value expected' error when run for the opts.colorCompression option even though the string is correct. If I define the opts as opts.colCompression = compressionQuality.AUTOMATICJPEGHIGH then everythings works
how I can define the compressionQuality.AUTOMATICJPEGHIGH as a variable the will work
Code snippet
opts = new PDFSaveOptions(); opts.compatibility = PDFCompatibility.ACROBAT5; opts.generateThumbnails = thumbnailValue;
Ive been messing around with the variable width tool, Im not sure I i changed something, I did try to restore defaults but when I make a change it changes the opposite side of the image. For example In screen shot I changed the width on the left and the effect showed up on the right.
I would like the width to change where I change it.
I'm working on a reflective drawing and using gradients on strokes. I've been using pressure sensitive calligraphic brushes I made. Now I'm trying to use variable width preset profile brushes. It works fine for the first stroke, but every time I make a new stroke, it reverts back to a calligraphic pressure brush. How can I keep my brushes the same profile until I manually select it to be different? I've gone back and forth between the brush tool and pencil tool and neither will keep any basic variable width profile past the first stroke. I have to select every brush stroke and change it again and again after drawing it.
I'm using the variables panel in Illustrator to pull a data set I've got.
For example there's 2 text variables and 1 number going from 0-359. I'm looking for a script which looks at the variable name and pulls the number, then uses that number to rotate a shape by that many degrees.
I’m using Adobe Illustrator CS6 with a mouse rather than a pressure graphics tablet.
When I create a stroke using the Paint brush tool I would like the stroke to contain a variable width profile. For example narrower at the beginning and end of the stroke but thicker in the middle. Now I can do this by selecting the line after I have made the stroke and choosing the Basic Brush Definition from the drop down list. But if i try to draw a new line the settings are reset again. I cannot create a variable stroke while creating the stroke. The brush definition keeps resetting to 5 pt Round and stroke width 1 pt. It would be much quicker if the stroke remained as a varying width profile as I created the strokes.
I noticed the same problem with the blob brush tool except it's even worse. With the blob brush tool the stroke weight always resets regardless of whether or not I try to set a Variable width profile.
I tried deselecting "New Art has Basic Appearance" mentioned on another forum but that didn't work.
[URL]
Notice the variable width profile is maintained as the artists draws. It doesn’t keep resetting.
I want it to be a variable stroke, so I loaded up “Width Profile 2” in the profiles. The trouble I am having, is that Illustrator defaults to start the larger dots in the bottom right hand corner, and I would like the “starting point” to be in the middle of the line if you know what I mean. I'm still happy for the dots to start big, then gradually decrease in size, but I want to control where the “beginning” is.
In Illustrator CS6 and CC, when the stroke width tool is used on a curve, the curve is actually made up of a series of straight lines instead of smooth vector curves:
whereas in CS5 it looks perfect.These images may be too small to see the details, but the difference is there. Is there a workaround for this? Or is it recognized as a bug?
What the maximum size xml file one can use when making data driven graphics in Illustrator?
I can successfully batch when I load a single variable library with about 100 datasets at one time but anything much larger than that in the same xml format gives me a “the incoming variable library is invalid” error. Elsewhere on this discussion forum I have seen answers say there is no limit to the size of the XML file. [URL]..... But my experience with Illustrator CS5 says otherwise.
1. If there is a maximum size either in file size, number of datasets, or number of variables/values, what the limit is. 2. I still need to create thousands of the final document I am creating - if the limit is close to 100 and I need to create many thousands - scripting or other methods to get this done?
I have a folder of 350 two page pdfs. I need to change a fill colour on both pages from (RGB 232,234,226) to (250,244,224).There are no original files to work from (these are .qxp files, and I can't open them in CS6).
Is it possible to batch process the lot, without losing the second page?
I'd like to use an action to set the view magnification to its smallest, 3.13%. I've tried recording one, using the drop-down menu at the bottom left of the canvas to set the percentage, but that doesn't record. There's no keyboard shortcut to edit.
I deisgn large numbers symbols in emf format and then batch convert these to svg files. I have over 22,000 images at the moment, so being able to automatically batchnconvert is vital.
Currently I to use CS3 to batch with no problems. In CS4 when you open the emf the artboard is the default document size, not the artwork size. So there is a lot of extra white space in the batched svg.
I have just downloaded a trial of CS5 to see if this is now possible as I hate being stuck on an old version. CS5 has the option to fit the artboard to the selected art (object/artboard/fit to selected art) but you cannot seem to save this to an action list.
The actions I want to include are 'open' 'select all' 'fit to selected art' 'save as svg' 'close' . But the artboad step isn't saved.
I am trying to record an action in Illustrator, and most steps work, except when I decide to create a new text layer, I select the type tool, type something into my document, and select another tool to complete the operation, nothing shows up in the action panel, it's as if Illustrator didn't see it. It works fine in Photoshop though.
In CS5, I created a very handy action that allowed me to, with two paths selected, Divide, Ungroup, and Deselect, resulting in the divided paths without having to do each step manually.
In CS6, for some reason this is no longer possible-- if I try to record the same action, after the divide, everything is automatically deselected and I get a "The object "Ungroup" is not currently available" error. Very frustrating that the new version is more troublesome to use!!
I KNOW that it's possible to do this because I was somehow able to fudge it at one point and get this action to work. But I'm not sure what happened-- maybe a step was deleted in my action or something-- but one day it just stopped working. This action is basically THE function I use most in Illustrator given the way I work, and while it's not a huge step, having to manually reclick, ungroup, and deselect is a huge inconvenience.
So normally when I'm drawing I always save a copy of my work to my external. Sometimes I'm paranoid and want to save one to my dropbox folder as well. So I made an action to save a copy to both places but it always names the file with whatever filename I used to set the action. I didn't rename or anything.
I'd like to use the "Jump into Group" feature, but I don't want the background artwork to be grayed, or washed out. Is there any way to disable the default action by AICS 5?
I understand the reasoning, but when working with elements that interact with elements outside the group, the effect is not useful.
I should use the right term… I talking about "Isolation Mode".
