I'm not aware of any pre-written scripts that will do exactly what you need, although there may well be. Typically, this forum tries to assist those creating new scripts or modify existing scripts, as stated in the Forum preamble, under "Useful information and links". See http://forums.adobe.com/community/illustrator/illustrator_scripting and in the yellow box there are some excellent links to assist you. You may be surprised how quickly you'll pick it up. Having said that, I'd be happy to help assist you if you still want to pursue this and participate in the development. A few thoughts come to my mind. 1) the image that needs to be replaced: does it have a consistent name? or is it always on a particular layer/sublayer? in other words, how do we identify it? I assume thath there are more than one image. Once the image is identified, the fix could be something as easy as:   item.name = "//NETMACHINE/YourNewFile.pdf" Obviously a bit oversimplified, but it is doable. Why not give it a go? Hope this helps. -TT ... View more

Hi mrbusto712, At first glance, it sounds pretty straight forward. Do you have anything started yet in your script in particular with which you are having problems that we can help you with? A little more explicit info on exactly what the layers and sublayers look like would be helpful so that I could further qualify my first sentence. -TT ... View more

<smile> Deal! 😉 Let me know if I can help. It would be my pleasure.  - TT ... View more

Hi Carlos, Glad to help. Thanks for the kudos. well that's great news, good job, so, could we freely work on any given file and the textFrame would autoupdate, without us noticing the timer is checking? no lag? The code would have to modified just a bit to check for a new active document, but easily doable. An autosave should be easy, a slug script -- what did you have in mind? how different is .NET from VB? I never gave it a try VB.NET vs VBA or VB.NET vs VB (like V4)? I suspect that you would have little problems. I've seen your code and watched your thinking played out in the forum so, yeah, no sweat. Brain surgery is easy if you know what you are doing too, right? (apologies to all the brain surgeons out there...). Very similar, but WAY more robust. So my offer still stands -- at the AI Scripting Forum Christmas party, we'll find a quiet little corner and I'll teach you .NET and you teach me VBA. 15 minutes, tops. Whadda ya say? 😉 If you would like, shoot me a PM and I'll make a few fixes and compile it for you, then you can try it out yourself. Best regards, -TT ... View more

Hi Carlos, >> no rush, I'm just curios to know, if it works it could open up a whole range of new projects Seriously? Well THAT moved it to the top of the pile! SO I have to admit, when a really smart guy (as yourself) asks me to do something that I think is easy, I figure that I've DEFINITELY missed something.   So I hope that I am wrong, but I threw this together in VB.NET and tested it and it works fine. Now there are a number of ways to do this and I am sure that I could refine it and make it more efficient if needed, but it works as a start. I don't know if VBA offers a timer, but if it does I think that it could be implemented fairly easily. If not, since it has to run concurrently with AI, I could compile it and offer it as a small executable but I don't know how others would feel about that. If they have VS 2008 Express or higher (and maybe even lower since there's not too much fancy stuff here) they might be able to opo in this code and compile it themselves. Now as far as performance is concerned, this is setup for 100 artboards (the AI max). I've run it with 6 and it seems fine. I don't know which benchmark one would use to compare it. I'm open to testing it. I figured that I would stop here, though, just to make sure that you and I are on the same train. Hope this helps. Let me know. -TT Here's the code. Hope it makes sense to you. Private Sub CompareArtboardNames()   Dim aDoc As AI.Document = app.ActiveDocument   Static Dim pass As Integer = 0   Static lastAbNames(100) As String   Dim abNames(100) As String   For i = 1 To aDoc.Artboards.Count    abNames(i) = aDoc.Artboards(i).Name    If pass = 0 Then     lastAbNames(i) = abNames(i)    Else     If abNames(i) <> lastAbNames(i) Then      aDoc.TextFrames.Item("_ChangedText").Contents = lastAbNames(i) & " ----> " & abNames(i)      lastAbNames(i) = abNames(i)     End If    End If   Next   pass = 1 End Sub Private Sub Timer1_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick   CompareArtboardNames() End Sub Private Sub TestTimerForArtboardNamesToolStripMenuItem_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles TestTimerForArtboardNamesToolStripMenuItem.Click   Dim aDoc As AI.Document = app.ActiveDocument   Dim chgdText As AI.TextFrame = aDoc.TextFrames.Add()   chgdText.Top = (aDoc.Artboards(1).ArtboardRect(0) - 50)   chgdText.Left = aDoc.Artboards(1).ArtboardRect(1)   chgdText.Name = "_ChangedText"   Timer1.Interval = 1000   Timer1.Enabled = True End Sub ... View more

Hey Carlos! I'll see what I can do -- make take a few days to get to it since I've got a lot going on. As far as being too resource demanding... you know if done properly, not at all. I used to think that way too until I learned differently. ... View more

Nice touch Carlos. 🙂  I didn't know that. Thanks -- good to know. Actually I guess I never thought about it. If really necessary, in .NET, I would probably periodically review with an event handler on the .NET side probably using a timer or a threaded while terminated by the closing of the doc, since my .NET code always runs parallel with .AI running. Just the way that I do it (although I think that I'm the only one in the world that does it this way, or even uses .NET for scripting!). ... View more

Wonky. I really like that. Here's some VB.NET code to help you if you can convert it to JS -- well it's either going to help you or confuse the heck out of you. I hope it's the former. This code dosen't do everything that you want, like place the artboard name at the bottom with an additional blank line (or that's what I understood) but it names each artboard. I had really hoped to complete it more for you but ran out of time. Like I said -- I hope that it helps. -TT Dim aDoc As AI.Document = app.ActiveDocument   For i = 1 To aDoc.Artboards.Count    Dim ab As AI.Artboard = aDoc.Artboards(i)    Dim abRect = ab.ArtboardRect    ab.RulerOrigin = {abRect(0), abRect(1)}    Dim pi As AI.PathItem = aDoc.PathItems.Rectangle(abRect(1), abRect(0), abRect(2) - abRect(0), -abRect(3) + abRect(1))    Dim abText As AI.TextFrame = aDoc.TextFrames.AreaText(pi, 0)    abText.Contents = ab.Name    abText.TextRange.ParagraphAttributes.Justification = AiJustification.aiCenter   Next ... View more

This works in VB.NET if this is of any help... Dim aDoc As AI.Document = app.ActiveDocument   For Each pi In aDoc.PageItems    Select Case TypeName(pi)     Case "TextFrame"      Dim tf As AI.TextFrame = pi      tf.Opacity = 20  '20% Opacity    End Select   Next ... View more

Garisimola, The if/else statements are used if you set the second parameter in the calling statement to 'false'. When you first set out your requirements, it was indicated to just be a 10% margin. Being a packrat of code and always liking options, I kept the code intact for you and just gave you an option so that you can have it either way.   In VB.NET, just for giggles, I added this to my list of utilities that I will never remember where they are when I need them, but I'll have it just in case. This is what it looks like - where you just choose your margin percentage and check whether or not you want to use the long side margin consistently or not. Maybe some day when I'm famous this will be worth something, but don't hold your breath. Regarding your offer of charitable kindness, you are quite a gentleman (or if I assume incorrectly, my profuse apologies, in which case I will say "gentleperson"). I heartily subscribe to the notion of paying it forward. As I said in a previous post, many here have helped me in the past and I'm simply returning the favor. This is truly one of the most generous sites in terms of folks helping other folks. If someone wants to learn, there are hundreds of people willing to help. That's what this site is all about. Sometimes (I admit) it bothers me when I see people asking for help when all they really want is free scripts customized to their needs, having no intention of even glancing at the code. You are NOT that way, and most are not. Still, I am always amazed that regulars are always willing to help. Pretty selfless, I think. Anyway (enough of me on my soap box) -- I am most honored at your offer, although I respectfully decline. Somewhere down the road, you'll get to return the good to someone else. That's pay enough for me.   If you still feel inclined to help someone monetarily (and it is entirely not necessary), pick one of YOUR favorite charities or something like a Make-A-Wish Foundation and maybe you can make one of some young child's limited days brighter and memorable thanks to you. If you choose to do that, please make yourself as the donor. We'll all feel good about it that way. Seriously. Best of luck and please post again if you need some help. I'm glad that I could assist here. Take care. -TT ... View more

@ Gustavo: that was the case in Pre-CS4, per Muppet Mark, but it is now changeable. @ garisimola: here's your script. Man, I just HATE Javascript! Lol! ----------------------- AdjustArtboardSize(10, true); function AdjustArtboardSize(abMargin, useLongSideMargin) {   var aDoc = activeDocument;   var vb = new Array(aDoc.visibleBounds);   vb = aDoc.visibleBounds;   var width = (vb[2] - vb[0]);  // left-right   var height = -(vb[3] - vb[1]);  // bottom-top   if (useLongSideMargin == true)     {       var margin = Math.max(width, height) * (abMargin / 100) + 36; // 36pts = .5"       vb[0] -= margin;    // left       vb[1] += margin;   // top       vb[2] += margin;   // right       vb[3] -= margin;   // bottom     }   else     {       vb[0] -= (width * (1 + abMargin / 100) - width);  // left       vb[1] += (height * (1 + abMargin / 100) - height); // top       vb[2] += (width * (1 + abMargin / 100) - width);  // right       vb[3] -= (height * (1 + abMargin / 100) - height); // bottom     }   aDoc.artboards[0].artboardRect = vb } ... View more

can you post your whole script or PM me with it? I'm not the JS guru, but I will do what I can... ... View more

I just reread your original post for some reason. I noticed that you talked about a 10% border. For some reason I had in my mind to split  that 10% to something like 5% on each side. Easy enough fix, though -- just remove the ' / 2 '. -TT ... View more

garisimola wrote: I have no idea what prompted you to help the hell out of me. I'm not sure either, but it is certainly enjoyable and rewarding to see progress. Keep it going. this takes the distance (right - left), multiplies it by 10% (1.1) and then subtracts the distance (right - left)/2 leaving the amount we want to move from the left to more left (this number will be negative, yes?) Well - it will be a number LESS than the original design left VB (VisibleBound). Possibly negative, possibly not. Depends on where your existing left VB is relative to your existing artboard. Usually artboard left is zero (although than can be changed), but remember that your VBs are of your design. or is the coordinate for the right sometimes not = zero? That is correct, for reasons explained above. extrapolating your work, this is what I get for the left, right, top, and bottom calculations: var left = docVB[0] – ((docVB[2] - docVB[0])*1.1 - (docVB[2] - docVB[0]) / 2) var right = docVB[2] + ((docVB[2] - docVB[0])*1.1 - (docVB[2] - docVB[0]) / 2) var top = docVB[1] + ((docVB[1] - docVB[3])*1.1 - (docVB[1] - docVB[3]) / 2) var bottom = docVB[3] - ((docVB[1] - docVB[3])*1.1 - (docVB[1] - docVB[3]) / 2) I think that you've got it. But now-- based on your new requirements (% of LONGER dimension +1/2") we're going to change a few things up, keeping you on your toes. I hope that it will make it easier and not more confusing. Here's the new VB.NET code: Public Sub AdjustArtboardSize(app As AI.Application, abMargin As Double)   Dim aDoc As AI.Document = app.ActiveDocument   Dim vb = aDoc.VisibleBounds   Dim width = (vb(2) - vb(0))     'left-right   Dim height = -(vb(3) - vb(1))    'bottom-top   Dim margin = Math.Max(width, height) * (abMargin / 100) / 2 + 36      '36pts = .5"   vb(0) -= margin    'left   vb(1) += margin    'top   vb(2) += margin    'right   vb(3) -= margin 'bottom   aDoc.Artboards(1).ArtboardRect = vb End Sub A few notes: I've introduced a new 'margin' variable. I've taken the '1+' out of the equation, and now divide abMargin (or your desired % margin) by 100 to come up with, for example: abMargin = 10... so 10/100=.1 (you can hardcode that it you would like or create a new JS variable for the abMargin equivalent -- like: var abMargin = 10; ) and then divide that by 2 (which basically takes your 10% and applies 5% on each side). I add 36 (remember 1" = 72 Adobe points) - so that's your 1/2". 'Math.Max(width, height)' returns the greater of the two elements, thus giving you what you need for your "longer of the two) dimensions requirement. Multiply that result by the percentage calcs mentioned above and you have the consistent margin desired for each side. WIth all that said, the rest is really easy, as you just add or subtract the new "margin" from the existing VisibleBounds. So now we will be anxiously waiting your next post signalling SUCCESS! Or... we'll be happy to help you again if need be. Good luck! -TT PS: Sometimes I get on a roll and type away and then, realizing the time spent, I get lazy (or my ADD kicks in ) and don't always proofread before I post. Please forgive any typos or if something doesn't make sense. Hopefully it all does. ... View more

Garisimola, You're almost on the right track. I applaud your persistence. Work with me here and you will understand it a lot more in no time and you'll be coding this stuff in your sleep. Here's a little background of my thinking and the process as I coded it: Just a little background… 'abMargin' is a variable that I created to allow modularity to the function. So let's say the you wanted 10% margin, then abMargin would equal 10. That value is set by the "caller" (the process that would be calling this subroutine). To help you understand it better, you could replace 'abMargin' with '10' (as per your original request) and then you would have a 10% extended margin. By adding the variable, I just allowed the subroutine to allow a calling program to set the value (in percentage terms) of the margin. Admittedly, you didn’t ask for it so I am sorry if it confused you. Now to the logic… Yes – we get the width of the artboard. I'll try to breakdown the math. I haven't had to do this in a LONG time so sorry if it's a little sloppy… Let's let width = 20 (as in 20") =(width * (1 + abMargin / 100) – width) / 2 'left point of new artboard =(width * (1 + 10 / 100) – width) / 2 =(width * (1 * .1) – width) / 2 =(width * 1.1 – width) / 2 =(22 – width) / 2 =(2)/2 =1        <-- This if half of the additional margin area that will be added to the original design size. This will be added to each side or to the top and bottom of the document's VisibleBounds. Now remember that the values (width) are in Adobe points (72/inch). So to the script 1 actually equals 72, while the original width would be 1440…. Just FYI. Like I said in my original reply post, I could have slimmed down the code to a little more efficient, but I thought that by doing it this way it might help you understand better. Now we do the same with the height. This is where caveat #1 comes in – not sure if you overlooked the need to clarify that you wanted 10% on each dimension (width and height) which is what this example that I provided does. If you wanted a consistent margin, then you need to specify which axis you prefer to use the 10% "of". That, of course, will change the script. So forget the -20 and +20 for the moment… those numbers are just points that you would have subtracted or added to the existing docVB (documentVisibleBounds) variable to get an artboard reference points for the OLD example. Consider this: My vb(x) (vb stands for VisibleBounds) is the equivalent to your JS docVB where 'x' is 0-3. vb(0) =left, vb(1)=top, vb(2)=right, vb(3)=bottom. See my example comments. Also note that going left to right on the width the numbers increase so to get the width in points you take vb(2)-vb(0). Vertically, in CS5+ (I think) you start at 0 and go negative. So here's a start for you’re the left side of your new artboard. '1.1' has been hard-coded in place of '1+abMargin/100'. var left = docVB[0] – ((docVB[2] - docVB[0])*1.1 - (docVB[2] - docVB[0]) / 2) Let us know is this helps you. -TT PS: I always liked this verse… "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Many (including many here) have spent time and taught me. I'm happy to return the favor. ... View more

OK -- this will challange you a little bit, in that you have to do a little conversion from VB.NET to JS, but this should do the trick for you. It should be easy enough. At minimum, you'll understand the differences a little bit. A few caveats: 1) You may or may not find that you desire a consistent margin on a rectangular-dimensioned collection of pathitems. Since you chose a "square" excample, you may or may not have considered that. 2) This has been tested on CS6. I beileve that it works back to CS5, but I forget when (what version) the vertical scale was changed so before that it probably needs some adjustment. 3) I used the variable abMargin to allow you to adjust easily the percentage that you desire in margins for your artboard. Note: '10' = 10%. While I could have made the code a little cleaner with less variables, I thought that spelling it out may help you understand the logic better. 4) I noticed in a previous post's example the use of Artboards(0). While the documentation states a zero-based array value, in my testing I could only get it work as a 1-base array. I'm sure that I am missing something that someone else may spell out. 5) Lastly (thank goodness) in the future, you may be better served by opening a new discussion and referencing the old discussion link. That's just my opinion, though. No harm, no foul. So here you go. Hope this helps. Good luck!    -TT  ---------------- Public Sub DrawBorderPcnt(app As AI.Application, abMargin As Double)   Dim aDoc As AI.Document = app.ActiveDocument   Dim vb = aDoc.VisibleBounds   Dim width = (vb(2) - vb(0))  'left-right   Dim height = -(vb(3) - vb(1)) 'bottom-top   vb(0) -= (width * (1 + abMargin / 100) - width) / 2  'left   vb(1) += (height * (1 + abMargin / 100) - height) / 2 'top   vb(2) += (width * (1 + abMargin / 100) - width) / 2  'right   vb(3) -= (height * (1 + abMargin / 100) - height) / 2 'bottom   aDoc.Artboards(1).ArtboardRect = vb End Sub --------------- PS: If you still need help in the conversion, let us know and if someone doesn't get to it first, I'll try to help. -TT ... View more

Based on what you are telling us, I'm not sure that I would classify this as a bug. It seems to make sense to me that if the application isn't ready that you just need to code around it. Have you tried a Try/Catch with a MsgBox to continue or some other code to work around your Exception? "Sleep" has never been one of my favorite options...  just my opinion. -TT ... View more

Hi Carlos, Gave it a try and the precompiler prompts an error "End of Statement expected". Tried inverting the positions of the braces and square brackets, but got the same error. Thanks you very much, though, for the suggestion -- it was surely worth a try! Which leads me to my next thought -- I think that you and I should get together -- say at the upcoming Adobe Scripting Forum Christmas Party (which I am sure that you are busily preparing and making arrangements for the guest speakers, etc., etc...) --- and I'll teach you VB.NET and you can teach me VBScript? What do you think?!? Thanks again, my friend, for the suggestion. -TT ... View more

Great, tyedye09wab! We've been waiting for this good news email! I might suggest that you start a new thread if you have any further problems, just to keep this one less contaminated and folks will be able to focus on your new problems, if any. Anyway - welcome back -- and congrats on your persistence. -TT ... View more

I don't think so. At quick glance it looks like it has something to do with TWAIN drivers. I think that we will find it to be something simple. Problem is, finding the simple solution sometimes takes way longer than it should. I'll keep thinking... ... View more

tyedye09wab, I (probably we) applaud your persistence. Don't give up. It will be worth your while. We've all been through it to one degree or another. I don't have a lot of experience in VBA to help you here too much, although (and Carlos will be REALLY excited about this since he's been trying to recruit me to this platform for sometime ) I actually did do a real fast setup with VBA in Excel to Illustrator and it was pretty much a cakewalk. I know that might not be exactly what you wanted to hear, but it goes to prove that it IS doable. I even googled some 429's for you but what I found was more for Office 2007 and prior, so probably not much help there. Again - here is just a thought (because we REALLY want to see you get past this) -- I wonder if you have any other CS6 components (like InDesign) that you could just reference the type library for that and give the old "Hello World" one more college try. If that were to work, maybe it is a corrupted CS6 Illustrator type library. Just thinking... HANG IN THERE! TT ... View more

Sorry - forgot point #2.   Do you have any experience in Visual Basic? If so, while it could be considered a "one-off" way to get to Illustrator scripting, Visual Studio/VB does provide Intellisense for the entities that should help you in your learning process. I am not sure what Visual Studio Express provide in the way of Intellisense, but at least the Pro version does. I would like to think that even the Express version would do the trick for you. My thinking had always been that sInce you have to have Excel open to run VBA anyway, may as well have Intellisense and a top-rate debugger to help you. Now having said all of that, if Excel/VBA offers intellisence, then there may not be much of an advantage to many, but I find that working in VB gives me a whole new level of control outside of AI scripting that I can use to integrate with the AI scripting. JMHO. Take care, TT ... View more

Hi tyedye09wab, I don't mean to step on Carlos' conversation with you, but in case he is busy, I thought that I would throw in a quick comment or two. First - to answer your question -- did you have an active document "open"? If there is no document open, it can't assign the variable to a non-open document. That would involve code to create a document. Hope this helps, TT ... View more

lg84 wrote: Then I close Illustrator and rerun the script and it works fine. Are you sure that you actually close Illustrator? Is it disappearing from task manager (or apple equivalent) or maybe still running in the background somehow? The reason why I ask is that I had a similar issue (not scheduled though). The fix was to open Illustrator if it was not open and create a document all as part of the script. Can you do this to remedy your issue? ... View more