script to add a line to a placed pdf in illustrator

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
March 25, 2022
3 replies
741 views

Hello - I am still learning scripting.

I have a document that has small, placed pdfs and I want to be able to select the small pdf (it's about 1 x 2 inches, rectangle) and have a script add a leader line to the placed pdf. Imagine a comment box with a line and arrow head. Best if I could add lines to multiple placed pdfs at the same time.

Even better, if I could customize the location of the line depending on where the placed pdf is located on the page. For instance, if I have a placed pdf on the left, I'd want the line to come out of the pdf on the right side, middle of the rectangle.

Is there any scripts out there that could do something like this?

thanks in advance.

Scripting

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Kurt Gold

Community Expert

You can download an improved style library that contains 20 different leader line styles including arrowheads.

Leader Line Arrow Styles 1

You can apply them to single linked files or simultaneously to multiple selected linked files.

You can also apply them to path objects, but you would first have to make sure that they are separate groups. That is, if you have for example 8 rectangles, each rectangle has to be a single grouped object. If you have multiple objects within one group the styles will be applied to the bounding box of the entire group.

As long as the styles are live they will adapt to the objects if you change their size. Also, you can tweak the style settings (e.g. position, angle or size of the leader lines).

m1b

Community Expert

@Kurt Gold, out of curiosity, why do you have a MacOS version? What is different about the two?

- Mark

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

Oh, I see. Please ignore my question. It's likely something to do with Google Drive's treatment of MacOS metadata or something. When I go to download your file via your link to Google Drive it looks like this inside your .zip file: