[Javasscript] Find the visible bounds of a layer in Illustrator

[kimberleyhansen]

Hi folks,

A similar question has been asked before, but I'm asking a much simplified version of it:

"Is there a way to determine the visible bounds of a layer in Illustrator CS5+?"

I ask because I'm trying to export layers with their upper-left coordinates in an XML file.  I've got the XML export working for objects, but would like to extend the funtionality to layers as well.

Many thanks in advance!

macdonaldshall

[Larry G. Schneider]

Layers don't have bounds. Objects in the layers do. You would probably have to group all the objects in the layer and then get the visible bounds for the group.

[kimberleyhansen]

Yeah, I figured as much...I was basically just wondering as to the easiest way to get-and-group all the child objects.  From what I can see, I'd have to look for all "groupItems", then all "compoundPathItems", etc... but there *must* be an easier way than that.

[Larry G. Schneider]

There's the super group PageItems which includes all of the above.

[kimberleyhansen]

Nice, I'll give that a shot.

[CarlosCanto · Accepted solution]

"Is there a way to determine the visible bounds of a layer in Illustrator CS5+?"

the Document.visibleBounds property returns the bounds of whatever is visible in the document...so, hide all layers, except one, and run the code

var idoc = app.activeDocument;
var bounds = idoc.visibleBounds;
$.writeln("visible layer bounds = " + bounds);

[kimberleyhansen]

Oh, perfect, this is exactly what I was looking for, thank you!