Help! I need to automate creating Illustrator Print Templates

[Bagmasters]

Hello Community!

I need to create many temlates I have a spreadsheet with "Item Size" and "Imprint Area". Is there a way with Scipts or Actions I can import that data to create 2 Artboards to the data size? I have attached an image for reference.  I have 5300 items to do this for, so you obviusly any help is more than appreciated! 

[Silly-V]

Are you looking to add 5300 documents or 10600 artboards?
The artboards in a single document are up to 1000.

But other than that, of course this is easily done with scripting but your instructions can be taken many different ways.

[Bagmasters]

I have 5300 products i am creating templates for. For each product I am looking to have 1 document created, inside the document are 2 artboards. One represents the "item Size" and the other represents "imprint area". Does that help?

[Silly-V · Accepted solution]

You can try this!

It's not very optimized and I did it super quick, but it can be improved to make the process a lot faster by not creating a new document every time but re-adjusting the existing doc and saving it in a different place.

#target illustrator
function test () {
	var csv = File.openDialog("Choose CSV", "*.csv");
	var contents;
	if (csv) {
		csv.open("r");
		contents = csv.read().split(/[\r\n]/g);
		csv.close();
	} else {
		return;
	}
	var outputFolder = Folder(csv.path + "/output");
	var coordRecords = [];
	var thisRecord;
	var col1Split, col2Split;
	var col1x, col1y, col2x, col2y;
	for (var i = 1; i < contents.length; i++) {
		thisRecord = contents[i].split(",");
		col1Split = thisRecord[0].split("x");
		col2Split = thisRecord[1].split("x");
		col1x = col1Split[0] * 1;
		col1y = col1Split[1] * 1;
		col2x = col2Split[0] * 1;
		col2y = col2Split[1] * 1;
		coordRecords.push({
			itemSize : [col1x, col1y],
			imprintArea : [col2x, col2y],
		});
	}

	var coordRecord;
	var newDoc;
	var startingArtboardCoords;
	var newBoard, newArtboardRect;
	for (var i = 0; i < coordRecords.length; i++) {
		coordRecord = coordRecords[i];
		/** @TyPe {Document} */
		newDoc = app.documents.add();
		startingArtboardCoords = newDoc.artboards[0].artboardRect;
		newDoc.artboards[0].name = "Imprint Size";
		newDoc.artboards[0].artboardRect = [
			startingArtboardCoords[0],
			startingArtboardCoords[1],
			coordRecords[i].itemSize[0],
			coordRecords[i].itemSize[1]
		];
		newArtboardRect = [
			startingArtboardCoords[0] + coordRecords[i].itemSize[0] + 50,
			startingArtboardCoords[1],
			coordRecords[i].itemSize[0] + coordRecords[i].imprintArea[0] + 50,
			coordRecords[i].imprintArea[1],
		];
		newBoard = newDoc.artboards.add(newArtboardRect);
		newBoard.name = "Imprint Area";
		newDoc.saveAs(File(outputFolder + "/Doc-" + (i + 1) + ".ai"));
		newDoc.close();
	}
};
test();

[Bagmasters]

I would love to try it! I appreaciate your help. Now how do I use this?

[Silly-V]

You save this text as .jsx file and go to Illustrator File > Scripts > Other scripts. You can do other more advanced things later to minimize this process, but it looks like this is something you won't be using that often (?).
So when you run it thus, it will go!

However just like with Excel macros, if you are at a scripting stage of asking 'how do I use this', make sure to be careful about not running random scripts from untrusted sources as they can wreak havoc on your computer just like an Excel Macro can - that's why they make it so you can't even send xlms books over gmail and such.

[Bagmasters]

Yes I understand and appreicate your forwarning. I looked through the help you have provided to others and feel that you have good intentions. I did save the copy and save the code as plain text in Textedit. I saved it as .jsx to my destop and and tried to run the script in a new document.  See the error attached,

 

 

[Silly-V · Accepted solution]

Oh , duh I forgot the CSV file! Here is what it is supposed to look like.

ItemSize	ImprintArea
400x400	500x500
250x200	300x275
250x125	300x325
450x275	500x400
75x25	200x150

So that 'x' is used inside a cell to hold 2 values and it is used as the splitter. Yea, that code was never going to work without this additional piece of info!

[Bagmasters]

Awesome! Got it, I love this community! This will help for sure.

[Bagmasters]

One more thing, it appears its the size is in Points. How do I use inches instread as that is the measuments I have to work with?

[Silly-V]

You can actually make it work without any edits to the script! Simply make your formula in Excel take your inch values and multiply them by 72 to get the point values that are workable in the script.
Else we'd have to edit the script by multiplying things by 72 inside there for internal use.