Improving Action tool for moving and copying objects\group of objects
As a fashion designer I make a lot of technical sketches in Adobe Illustrator daily.
Usually garments are symmetrical and to save my time and make my working process more convenient I learned how to move and reflect an object exactly to the centre of the other half in 6 steps. But it is a lot of steps, so when I tried to record an action with all steps it didn't work correctly with other objects.
I did and attached a small presentation to explain what I do and why action doesn't work. Please update the action tool that we could use in cases like mine.
Constantine
shared this idea
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Constantine, there are a lot of tutorials on web with detailed instructions on using scripts. Yep, Ai lacks finesse in dealing with this, but the general method is to put them into the designated folder and later call them via File > Scripts menu (need relaunching Ai to make it see them after being placed). You can also record calling scripts in actions.
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Constantine
commented
I was able to download scripts and I moved it to the scrips folder. But did not get how to use it
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There is another way to do it.
Instead of using the Reflect tool, try to record the Flip Horizontally command from the Transform panel’s flyout menu.
Notice that it does support the reference point from the panel, so you can make the artwork get reflected from the right side instantly, without dealing with the width of the art. To quickly set the reference point to the side you want, you can install and record running this script into the action: https://onthehead.com/ais/preference006/ (use 3flab-transfrom_point_setting_5_center_right.jsx)
So your action will have just 4 steps: duplicate in two steps (your way or copy/paste), setting a reference point, flipping.
Ai will throw a warning on running an external script, though. To get rid of it, make it run a JSX script with this singe line of code:
app.preferences.setBooleanPreference("ShowExternalJSXWarning", 0);
This will disable showing this message for all external scripts.
Does this solve this for you? Please write back when you try the solution.
