g'day there.
I work for a printing company which is frustrated by the lack of decent planning diagrams. We have sophisticated RIP software which allows us to create complicated impositions etc, but doesn't allow us to print out planning diagrams with the measurements on them for the rest of the factory to use as a reference. Until recently, the diagrams have been drawn out with pen on a preprinted grid, which IMHO takes too long.
To speed up the process i made several HTML imposition calculators which, when given the plate size, sheet size and page size, returns the results of how many pages will fit onto the given sheet and plate sizes. My desire is to get these calculations into indesign as painlessly as possible so that they can be printed out. Unfortunately, my knowledge of javascript comes to a halt here. I can get the results of the calculations into an email, but that's it. My workaround so far has been to copy the results (which are returned into an email) into an indesign template, and then run a variation of the findchangebylist.jsx script so that it populates the text fields; and then run the makegrid.jsx script to draw the picture of the grid itself. there can be a lot of further tweaking after this, depending on the complexity of the imposition.
i've attached the HTML imposition calculators along with a copy of the template and a pdf of a typical result; as well as the scripts used above.
Ideally, i'd like the calculator to work wholly in indesign, rather than having to open firefox and then cut and paste into indesign. it'd be nice to click trimallaroundcalc.jsx and then have a dialog box open with the calculator; and then once the results are typed in and ok'd, the planning diagram is generated and able to save and print. If the diagram was also to 1:5 scale, that'd be icing on the cake too!
any assistance in this would be greatly appreciated 
many thanks
colly
6
Replies
Can do, but for ease, you do have to prepare the template a bit. Select each of your green text frames in turn, and give them a unique scripting label. Save the file, again as a template.
Then you can use this (much shorter!) script to automatically open the template -- ID will present you an untitled copy -- and copy the text from the dialog into the appropriate places. Repeat the last line for each of the text edit/destination frame combinations.
var myDialog = app.dialogs.add({name:"Imposition #1", canCancel:true});
with(myDialog)
{
with(dialogColumns.add())
{
with(dialogRows.add())
{
with(dialogColumns.add())
{
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Customer name"});
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Job number"});
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Description"});
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Colors used"});
hiresproof = checkboxControls.add({staticLabel:"Hi res proof"});
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Roman page #"});
staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Arabic page #"});
}
with(dialogColumns.add())
{
var custNameEd = textEditboxes.add({minwidth:100});
var jobNumEd = textEditboxes.add({minwidth:100});
var descEd = textEditboxes.add({minwidth:100});
var colorsEd = textEditboxes.add({minwidth:100});
loresproof = checkboxControls.add({staticLabel:"Lo res proof"});
var romanEd = textEditboxes.add({minwidth:100});
var arabicEd = textEditboxes.add({minwidth:100});
}
}
}
}
if (myDialog.show() == false) exit(0);
doc = app.open ("yourFileNameHere.indt");
// Repeat this for each of your labeled text frames:
doc.textFrames.item("customername").contents = custNameEd.editContents;
... etc. ...
would it be easier perhaps to have a script that made a document to the plate size and then drew boxes to sheet/page sizes, and THEN have a separate script which drew arrows and measurements on only selected items?
No, it would actually be easier if one script did all. Creating a document of the right size is not a problem. Creating the document and setting sensible defaults for the text is just the first 6 lines in my previous script. All stuff after that is to draw one box and one measurement line 
-- but the rest is, apart from the dimensions and positions, exactly the same. Custom functions can help you here. You could write one for the box drawing, using a more familiar coordinate system, and have the function re-calculate into ID's own coordinates:
function drawBox (document, centerx, centery, width, height)
{
var frame = document.rectangles.add();
frame.geometricBounds = [ centery - height/2, centerx - width/2, centery + height/2, centerx + width/2];
.. set rest of frame attributes ..
}
and the same for a measurement line:
function drawMeasure (document, centerx, centery, length, verticalFlag)
{
var line = document.graphicLines.add();
if (verticalFlag == true)
{
line.paths[0].pathPoints[0].anchor = [ centerx, centery - length/2 ];
line.paths[0].pathPoints[1].anchor = [ centerx, centery + length/2 ];
} else
{
line.paths[0].pathPoints[0].anchor = [ centerx - length/2, centery ];
line.paths[0].pathPoints[1].anchor = [ centerx + length/2, centery ];
}
.. set other attributes, create text frame (rotated for vertical lines), and put "length" into this ..
}
The main body of the code can be a series of calls to these two functions.
sorry to resurrect this rather old post.
i've been using jongware's scripting label solution (which i'd marked as helpful) but have just upgraded to cs5.5 and am now getting the error:
line 35 happens to be the line which (i think) tells the script to assign whatever was put in the textarea to go to the script label
doc.textFrames.item("customername").contents = custNameEd.editContents;
i have resaved my templates as cs5.5 files and this has not resolved the issue. is there something about 5.5's DOM that i'm unaware of which changed here?
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