Tiny issue with a layer

[orgicus]

Hi,

I'm currently trying to do the same copy to clipboard trick Muppet Mark-QAl63s showed me in this thread: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/840440?tstart=0

Unfortunately with my current document I get an error when trying to execute this:

var lineRef = app.activeDocument.pathItems.add();

and there error is: "Target layer cannot be modified"

....which is a bit cryptic to me. Why can't the layer be modified ?

I've printed to the console app.activeDocument.activeLayer.locked and it prints false.

What does that error mean and how can I get past it ?

Thanks in advance,

George

[MikePardee]

Check to see if the layer that you are trying to add the line to is visible. I gave it a quick try, and Illustrator wouldn't let me add an item when the layer was not visible.

[orgicus]

That seems to replicate the issue quite well,

done a basic test with a new document and an invisible layer:

var wasVisible = app.activeDocument.activeLayer.visible; if(!wasVisible) app.activeDocument.activeLayer.visible = true; var lineRef = app.activeDocument.pathItems.add(); if(!wasVisible) app.activeDocument.activeLayer.visible = false;

and that worked.

I don't have the document I had the issue with on this machine, but I'll check again tomorrow.

Thanks!

[Larry G. Schneider]

AI doesn't allow you to work with a layer that isn't visible. This includes stuff like removing it as well as modifying it.

[Larry G. Schneider]

So what's the rest of the script. Kind of hard to tell from the snippet.

[orgicus]

Ok, it wasn't as simple as I expected.

The document I had issues with is from a designer and contains a lot of layers, some locked, some invisible, although at the moment, I'm concerned with just one layer.

I might be wrong, but it turns out that I need unlock/set visible true for ALL the layers, even though I'm not using them...the activeLayer is visible and unlocked. I actually hope I'm wrong, because at the moment I'm storing the state of all layers, making them ALL visible/unlocked, doing the clipboard hack, then restoring them. This is a bit much just for the clipboard functionality to be honest and I suspect it can crash Illustrator for complex documents.

Here's my current function:

function copyToClipboard(text,doc){
    var lvs = [];
    var numLayer = doc.layers.length;
    //unlock/make all visible
    for(var i = 0 ; i < numLayer ; i++){
        lvs = [doc.layers.locked,doc.layers.visible];
        if(lvs[0]) doc.layers.locked = false;
        if(!lvs[1]) doc.layers.visible = true;
    }
    try{
        var lineRef = app.activeDocument.pathItems.add(); 
        lineRef.setEntirePath( Array(Array(0, 0), Array(500, 0) ) );
        var pathTextRef = doc.textFrames.pathText(lineRef);
        pathTextRef.contents = text;
        pathTextRef.selected = true;
        doc.selection = [pathTextRef];
        app.cut();
    }catch(error){ alert(error); }
    //restore
    for(var i = 0 ; i < numLayer ; i++){
        if(lvs[0]) doc.layers.locked = true;
        if(!lvs[1]) doc.layers.visible = false;
    }
}

Is this the only way to achieve this ? Feels very hacky/clunky/innefficient not to mention the previous selection is lost.

[orgicus]

Any tips ? Anyone ?

[moluapple · Accepted solution]

Why not just add a new layer and finally remove it?

function copyToClipboard (text, doc){
     doc.layers.add().textFrames.add().contents = text; 
     doc.layers[0].hasSelectedArtwork = true;
     app.copy();
     doc.layers[0].remove();
}
copyToClipboard("Text for copy to Clipboard", activeDocument);

[orgicus]

) yes, that is a lot simpler...why did I miss that

Thanks!