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Robert Zinke
Robert Zinke
Participating Frequently
October 16, 2023

boxTextPos doesn't work with negative values

  • October 16, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 602 views

While working on a text script, I encountered an issue with the boxTextPos property. It seems that boxTextPos does not accept negative values. Whenever I try to input a negative value, the script does not work, but it works perfectly fine with positive values.

 

AE Version: v 23.6 & v 24.0 (users have reported this issue since CC 2017)

OS: Windows 11

 

Steps to Reproduce:

Create a script using the boxTextPos property to set the position of a paragraph text box.
Try setting the value to a negative number, e.g. boxTextPos = [-50, 50];
See that the script does not run.
Change the value to a positive number, e.g. boxTextPos = [50, 50];
The script works correctly.

 

I believe this is a bug that needs attention as it limits the flexibility in scripting for working with paragraph text layers, which are a substantial part of text workflows. Any help or acknowledgment would be highly appreciated!

    4 replies

    Robert Zinke
    Robert ZinkeAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    November 22, 2023

    Thanks a bunch Douglas, this is exciting news!

      D
      Adobe Employee
      Douglas_Waterfall
      Adobe Employee
      November 21, 2023

      This has now been fixed and is in beta.

       

      https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-beta-discussions/per-character-scripting-public-beta-announcement/td-p/14247138

       

      Douglas Waterfall

      After Effects Engineering

        Robert Zinke
        Robert ZinkeAuthor
        Participating Frequently
        October 18, 2023

         

        Hi Douglas,

         

        thank you for your prompt response! I appreciate your willingness to investigate this issue.

        Regarding the exception message, there is no specific error when I attempt to set negative boxTextPos values.

        Instead, the script simply does not execute the value change.

         

        Here's a simplified example script that demonstrates the issue:

        var textProp = app.project.activeItem.layer(1).sourceText;
var textDoc = textProp.value;

textDoc.boxTextPos = [-100, -100];
textProp.setValue(textDoc);

         

          D
          Adobe Employee
          Douglas_Waterfall
          Adobe Employee
          October 16, 2023

          I would like to learn more about this:

           

          See that the script does not run.

           

          What is the exception message you are seeing?

           

          Can you please provide a small script which demonstrates the issue? There are lot of special cases with TextDocument and rather than guess I would like see the sequence you are using.

           

          Douglas Waterfall

          After Effects Engineering

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