move shapes into an opacity mask via scripting?

Forum|Forum|7 months ago
December 10, 2025
1 reply
188 views

Hello,
I'm trying to write a script that gets the silhouettes of shapes on the current layer, then create a new layer that has an opacity mask revealing just those silhouette shapes so that we can only draw within those shapes on the new layer.
It is possible to create an opacity mask via actions, which can be scripted, but I didn't find a way to paste or move the shapes into the opacity mask.
Is that possible via scripting?

Scripting

S

sttk3

Legend

Can this be achieved using a layer clipping mask instead of an opacity mask? If it's a silhouette, it can be done with a simple path, correct?

FlowgunAuthor

Inspiring

yes but I wanted to explore opacity masks as they can be attached to a whole layer, allowing me to paint or create shapes on that layer freely. plus the eraser tool doesn't work on clipping masks.

m1b

Community Expert

Yes I would like that, too, but unfortunately many functions of Illustrator are not exposed via the scripting API, including, sady, opacity masks. If there is a way to do what you want, I think it will be a creative hack of some sort.

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