Example file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzEoJSYDhH_WcXhIalFRTk9qOGc/view?usp=sharing
We can assume:
• Grouped art on setups with a named die line.
• All groups exist on 'Layer 1'
I am looping through the groups and working with groups who's parent is 'layer'. I was looping through all the groups in the document, but when I created the clipping mask it creates a new group and screws up my loop. I am now looping only through the groups on 'Layer 1' and moving them to a new layer before doing the clipping mask. My script is breaking after the group has successfully moved to the new layer. I have a bunch of alerts in it for debugging.
#target Illustrator
var idocX = app.activeDocument;
var li = idocX.layers;
function meetTheParents(PageItem){
if (PageItem.parent.typename = "Layer"){ return "Layer"; } else if (PageItem.parent.typename = "GroupItem"){ return "Group"; }
}
function isLayerFree(layer){
if (layer.locked == false && layer.visible == true){ var gpa = layer.parent; isLayerFree(gpa); return true } else { return false }
}
var trLyr = li.add();
trLyr.name = "TRASH";
var l1 = li.getByName('Layer 1');
for (j = l1.groupItems.length -1; j >= 0; j--) { app.executeMenuCommand ('deselectall'); var iGroup = l1.groupItems[j]; if (iGroup.hidden==false && iGroup.locked==false) { if (meetTheParents(iGroup) == "Layer"){ if (isLayerFree(iGroup.parent)){ iGroup.move(trLyr, ElementPlacement.PLACEATBEGINNING); // set die variable to die in current selection alert ("Group " + j + " moved to trash layer"); alert ("trash layer path items length = " + trLyr.pathItems.length); // I'm getting '0' here even though I just moved items into it. var die = trLyr.pathItems.getByName('proofLine'); // script breaks here alert ("Die identified for this group"); die.move(trLyr, ElementPlacement.PLACEATBEGINNING); for (a = 0; a < trLyr.pageItems.length; a++){ var thing = trLyr.pageItems[a]; if (thing.hidden==false && thing.locked==false){ thing.selected = true; } } var sel = idocX.selection; // get selection alert (sel.length + " items in current selection."); // make clipped group of die with art inside if (sel.length==2) {// continue only if 2 objects are selected var igroup = idocX.groupItems.add(); // add a group that will be the clipping mask group var imask = sel[0]; // the mask is the object on top var ipath = sel[1]; // the "drawn object" is at the bottom var idup = imask.duplicate(); // duplicate the mask, to later get the fill and stroke to apply to the clipping path ipath.move (igroup, ElementPlacement.PLACEATBEGINNING); // add both path to the group imask.move (igroup, ElementPlacement.PLACEATBEGINNING); imask.clipping = true; // make the mask the clipping path igroup.clipped = true; // clip the everything in the group to the clipping mask if (idup.filled == true){ imask.fillColor = idup.fillColor; // add fill color, same as the dup } imask.stroked = true; // stroke the mask imask.strokeWidth = idup.strokeWidth; // add stroke width, same as the dup imask.strokeColor = idup.strokeColor; // add stroke color, seme as the dup idup.remove(); // remove the duplicate }else { // show this message if other than 2 objects are selected alert("Select both, the Mask and the object that needs to be 'inside'.\rThe Mask needs to be the top most object."); } app.executeMenuCommand ('deselectall'); igroup.move (l1, ElementPlacement.PLACEATBEGINNING); } } }
}
trLyr.remove();
Inside my larger script it breaks silently, in this example script it gives me a "no such element". There should be such an element, I just put it there. After the script closes, the group has been moved, meaning that the named path is right where it should be.