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Known Participant
August 2, 2023
Question

Action "Fill" doens't work in artboards

  • August 2, 2023
  • 6 replies
  • 422 views

I have an action in photoshop that automatically creates a layer, then fills it with 50% gray, then applies an Add Noise filter and then sets the layer to Overlay mode. This action works perfectly with regular PS documents, no matter the size.

 

But when I try to use this action in documentos with artboards, it doens't work. It creates the layer, but then it stops on the Fill step and throws an error: "Can't complete the Add Noise command because the selected area is empty."

 

This happens because in my action, the Fill step has a "From px to px" size, and I assume that my artboards are outside this value, thats why the Add Noise filter can't be applied.

 

I believe that, since when I recorded the action, I didn't specify an area with a selection, the Fill command should just fill the entire artboatd, just how it works on regular PS documents. In regular PS documents the "From px to px" seems to not matter and the action always fills the entire documents as I expect.

 

I'm using Windows and the most recent version of PS.

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6 replies

Known Participant
August 3, 2023

Thanks for the tip! This method works, but it creates a layer the size of all the artboards combined. The only problem I see is that with documents with multiple artboards, it can increase the size of the file.

Jeff Arola
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 3, 2023

Instead of using the Paint Bucket Tool for the fill you could use either

Edit>Fill>Contents>50% Gray (1st action) or

Layer>New>Layer (2nd action) to make a new layer , fill and blending

mode at the same time as shown in the two actions below.

 

Known Participant
August 2, 2023

I recorded a video (my UI is in Portuguese because I'm from Brazil). I made the noise effect very noticeble for the video. 

 

First, I show the action working on a regular PS document, then on artboards.

 

Here is the action:

Known Participant
August 2, 2023

I tried, it doesn't work. The Select All command also defines a "From px to px" when you record the action. On regular documents it works fine even if the document is bigger then the "From px to px" dimensions, but with artboards, I get the same error.

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 2, 2023

What if you add a select all step before the fill?

Jeff Arola
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 2, 2023

Can you post a screenshot of the action and of the layers panel on a document that throws the error?