how to break symbol link by script?

[dry yao]

hi guys, does anyone konw how to do it ?

[CarlosCanto]

no direct way, a workaround is to delete the symbol, but then all instances get "link broken"

[dry yao]

thank you very much, it's so helpful!

[Muppet Mark]

The work around is to make a dupe of the art in the symbols collection then break that… This works for me…?

#target illustrator
var doc = app.activeDocument;
var sym = doc.symbolItems[0]; // Break just the first instance
var dup = doc.symbols.add( sym, SymbolRegistrationPoint.SYMBOLCENTERPOINT );
sym.symbol = dup; // Assign the copied art
dup.remove(); // Remove the copied art

Just my top item in now a group…

[CarlosCanto]

did not work for me Mark, the dup symbol still has a copy of the first symbol in it, on breaking the link, the original symbol remains.