Taking dimensions from a detail drawing and converting the various box sizes in an Illustrator file

[ramap6474]

Hello,

How do I go about taking panel dimensions (width and height) in a detail drawing (pdf) and converting them to boxes according to their various sizes? I work for a trade show company in the graphics department. On a daily basis I work on trade show booths and look at the panel sizes from the pdf to make boxes in Illustrator and then label them according to the info from the pdf (Panel A, B, C, etc). With all the various box sizes made, I then use the Artboard Tool to make the artboards. Once all the artboards are made, I then use the Type tool to put a label on top of each box for identification.

My questions are:

Is it possible to extract the various panel size info from the pdf file and have Illustrator automate the task of

1. Making the boxes, instead of me tediously making each box?

2. Labelling each box

Even if no one knows of how to do this in Illustrator, then perhaps someone could point me in the right direction.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Rama Persaud,

Florida, USA

[Ton Frederiks]

I suppose the pdf is opened in Illustrator and you can select your panel content.

You could create an action.

When you select your objects and group them you can add a new fill or stroke to the group in the Appearance panel. Using the Effect > Convert to Shape > Rectangle, you can create a rectangle that is the size of your selection.

You can expand the Appearance and run a script to add dimensions

See this discussion:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator/illustrator-cs6-adding-dimensional-information-to-a-drawi...

[ramap6474]

Hello Mr. Frederiks,

I'm attaching a graphic that hopefully explains more clearly what I'm aiming for. Hope this helps. Thank you very much for your time!

[Grant H]

Like Ton says, but also:

That the information is will be scattered on the PDF, so you will most likely need to input that info manualy anyway, I think this might be one of those jobs where 80 percent would need to be done manually. Maybe a clever action may assist with some of the mundane tasks.

/G

[ramap6474]

Hello Grant,

Thank you very much for your advice. I'll experiment with Actions and see if I can get Illustrator and the pdf file to work together.

[Ton Frederiks]

That is indeed something totally different from what I understood.

I am afraid that there will be lots of manual work, maybe someone can come up with a smart script.

[ramap6474]

Yes, this is uncharted waters for me and hopefully someone could come up with a clever script.

Your input and time is very appreciated!