Get and set artboard of placed item

[Dirk Becker]

Hi all,

when I manually place an AI/PDF file, the PDF import options dialog allows to specify a page or artboard of the imported file. Is there a way to do the same by script, and/or later on retrieve the value?

I've already tried:

• matching properties of placedItem
• parameters for relink()
• PDF import options
• tags

Regards,

Dirk

[TᴀW]

Hi Dirk,

app.PDFPlacePreferences.pageNumber

Does that not work?

Ariel

[Dirk Becker]

Hi Ariel,

if this were InDesign, sure.

I'm looking for the equivalent in Illustrator, drawing icons with InDesign feels a little odd ...

Thanks,

Dirk

[TᴀW]

Oops -- didn't notice which forum we were in!

Sorry, then, I have no idea! Hopefully someone else will chip in here and share their expertise.

Ariel

[Loic.Aigon · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Nothing straightforward as it seems 😕 Only things I could think of is:

a) open the file aside, set active artboard, duplicate items to new Document (if possible)

b) Open doc with PDFFileOptions/pageToOpen

saves a tempFile

either use createFromFile (tempFile) or placedItems.add().file = …

Hoping there is a better way,

FWIW

Loic

[CarlosCanto]

what loic said, use pageToOpen, here's a link to a working script

How to "Place as linked file" (not "import") a multipage PDF file on a single Artboard ?

[Loic.Aigon]

If I can help the great Dirk Becker​ once in my lifetime, I will be happy to pay back a little for all the generous help he provided to me over the years

[Dirk Becker]

Thanks all, I'll give it a try. PDFFileOptions plus an action.

Here comes the next problem - the placed file name will be hard-wired in the action.

Solvable with a following relink(), the page number is preserved.

Hmm.

Now I also retried the previous approach - et voilà, placedItems.add().file will honour the setting, no need for an action!

Sorry Carlos, I had set the "Correct" flag too early because going thru an action sounded too compelling Illustrator-ish.

Thanks a lot, Loic.

I see I'll have still much to learn with Illustrator.

[Silly-V]

So all you have to do is set the preference and do placed item add? Maybe I have done this before, but my memory is very distant if any on that one time.