Applescript InDesign how to get visible bounds of AI file without handles (extra space)

I’ve never noticed this before, but with .AI files the Crop To Art option is always available, which is what I think @Fobioid  wants—there’s no extra white space. With PDF’s the Art option is often grayed out, but not all of the time and I’m not sure why.

Rob,

Thank you (and everyone else) for your quick reply. Your answer gave me an idea.

I decided to come at it from the other way and set the artboard to the visible bounds in Illustrator, which makes it easier to work with, especially in the case where the art is all white, or it needs to align exactly with other links (think spot UV). 

I worry that even at 1200dpi, there is still some rounding of numbers happening. I think someone could probably replace a channel selection with transparency selection to make your script more versitile, but I didn't dig around to find out the object for that. I may come back to your method if my method doesn't work for raster effects or the like.

Anyway, the object of the day is... control bounds

This script will set the (first) artboard to the visible bounds and leave you with a guide where the artboard used to be (just incase you need to revert). Sorry if it's a little clunky. 

tell application id "com.adobe.Illustrator"
	activate
	tell current document
		set myObjCount to count of page item
		set myLayerCount to count of layer
		set myLockedObject to {}
		set myLockedLayer to {}
		set myControlBounds to {}
		
		repeat with l from 1 to myLayerCount
			if locked of layer l is true then
				set end of myLockedLayer to l
				set locked of layer l to false
			end if
		end repeat
		
		repeat with i from 1 to myObjCount
			if locked of page item i is true then
				set end of myLockedObject to i
				set locked of page item i to false
			end if
			set selected of page item i to true
			set end of myControlBounds to control bounds of page item i
			set selected of page item i to false
		end repeat
		
		make new layer with properties {name:"TEMP_BOUNDS"}
		
		repeat with p in myControlBounds
			make new rectangle with properties {bounds:p}
		end repeat
		
		set artDim to visible bounds
		set theAB to artboard rectangle of artboard 1
		make new layer with properties {name:"Original Artboard_guides"}
		set oldArtBoard to make new rectangle with properties {bounds:theAB}
		set guides of oldArtBoard to true
		
		set xx1 to (item 1 of artDim) + 0.5
		set yy1 to (item 2 of artDim) - 0.5
		set xx2 to (item 3 of artDim) - 0.5
		set yy2 to (item 4 of artDim) + 0.5
		make new layer with properties {name:"*ID FRAME*"}
		make new rectangle with properties {bounds:{xx1, yy1, xx2, yy2}}
		set selection to page item 1 of layer "*ID FRAME*"
		set selBounds to the visible bounds of selection
		set artboard rectangle of artboard 1 to selBounds
		delete layer "*ID FRAME*"
		delete layer "TEMP_BOUNDS"
		
		repeat with m in myLockedObject
			set locked of page item m to true
		end repeat
		
		repeat with n in myLockedLayer
			set locked of layer n to true
		end repeat
		
	end tell
end tell

Hi Uwe, AppleScript doesn’t need Bridgetalk, communicating between apps is simply a matter of telling Photoshop to activate and open the file. The simplicity of communicating between apps is probably the only advantage AS has over JS.