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Participant
March 20, 2012
Answered

Is there a way to script "expand appearance"?

  • March 20, 2012
  • 1 reply
  • 4255 views

I have created a method to create line art roof shingles row-by-row. I think something like this is a good candidate for scripting, but I run into a dead-end quickly when trying to script this. Basically, I use "expand appearance" multiple times during the course of this process and I can't find any way to script that action. I have heard about using MenuIDs, but I can't find anything on how to discover what the MenuID for "expand appearance" is.

 

Anyhow, here is the tutorial. If anyone can give me some pointers on how to script this process, I would be very thankful.

 

I have also tried recording an action, but "expand appearance" doesn't get saved.

 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Larry G. Schneider

I used the recorder to record an action. The Expand Appearance step didn't record. I just now noticed you can add menu items to actions from the drop-down menu. Trying that. The next step is to add the tweak and roughen steps to the action.

I'm using Windows BTW and was going to script in javascript.


I used the Add Menu Item for mine and it works just fine. Unfortunately ExtendScript (Adobe's version of Java) does not provide support for the doScript call. You can use VB to do it on Windows.

1 reply

Inspiring
March 20, 2012

Didn't look at the video but script does NOT have access to expand appearance

Participant
March 20, 2012

Any work-arounds?

Larry G. Schneider
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 20, 2012

I just tried using Expand Appearance in an action and had no trouble with it even after a restart. How did you make the Action? What OS are you using? Looks like a Mac. If so you can use the doScript in an AppleScript to call the action.