Adobe Illustrator for Windows - Numbering discrete units in patterns

Author

Numbering discrete units in patterns

Jeffrey_J._Castaline@adobeforums.com

2006-08-21, 3:41 am

Hi,

First time frustrated poster. (-:

I am a stained glass artist and have been using Adobe Illustrator for years to do my line drawing patterns from which I fabricate art glass windows.

Illustrator makes designing a dream, but after doing a pattern I have to, one by one, number each pattern piece.

(You can see a design sample at <http://www.abasg.com/stuff/AyameCP.jpg> )

Most patterns have from 350 to 1,000 individual pieces and it's tedious having to do each one.

Is there some kind of plugin or add on available that will do the numbering for me, automatically?

Any information or help would be appreciated.

Jacob_Bugge@adobeforums.com

2006-08-21, 6:54 am

Jeffrey,

Most patterns have from 350 to 1,000 individual pieces and it's tedious
having to do each one.

Please elaborate. Are you repeating pattern parts? Or?

And which kind of numbering?

Jeffrey_J._Castaline@adobeforums.com

2006-08-21, 7:00 pm

No. we are not repeating pattern parts.

Starting in the upper lefthand corner we place one number in the center of each open space and process either left to right or up to down.

We use two pattern copies. One on our work board and the other is cut up into individual pieces to use as templates for shaping the individual pieces of glass.

Without the individual number in the center of the pattern piece there would be no way to determine where to place pieces after shaping them.

We number the pieces, 1, 2, 3, etc., until each pieces is identifited.

Kurt_Gold@adobeforums.com

2006-08-21, 7:00 pm

A 100 % automatic solution cannot be reached, but - under certain conditions - one that will at least place a text object in the centre of each of the visually enclosed areas (or their "virtual" bounding boxes).

Do your line drawings consist of strokes or outlined strokes?

Teri Pettit

2006-08-21, 7:00 pm

This could be done with a script, but it would be a pretty complex one. You would acquire an array of the path objects, sort them in the desired order, then loop through the sorted array creating a text object and assigning the current number to it. Do yo
u have the budget to hire an experienced Illustrator javascripter for a day?

Does it matter a whole lot what part of the objects is used for determining their relative order? (The center of their bounding box, the top left corner of their bounding box, their topmost anchor point, etc.?) In your example, the long leaf that reaches
the top of the design but also extends down into the lower half would sort quite differently if using the centers than it would if using the top. Are there any paths in the file that you do not want to have numbered? (This is the kind of info your scripte
r would need to know.)

eli_schuepbach@adobeforums.com

2006-08-21, 7:00 pm

If you simply need to put a number on each piece, I have a semi-automated way of doing that. I have worked large plans of hospitals and office complexes, and I needed a script to number rooms (a lot of them). I had to apply logic that could not be scripte
d. My script works this way:

with the point tool, create a path placing a point everywhere you want a number to appear.

the script loops over each path point, coutning and placing a number at each point.

By modifying the script, you can add a pre-fix to each number.

Also, you designate the layer where you want the numbers to appear in the script.

I have 2 versions, one for illustrator 10, and one for CS2.

Let me know if you are interested.

Jeffrey_J._Castaline@adobeforums.com

2006-08-21, 7:00 pm

Eli,

Thanks for the input, but each pattern is different and taking the tim to place the points on each piece would require the same amount of time to just go ahead and number them, unless I misunderstood what you were saying.

Jeffrey_J._Castaline@adobeforums.com

2006-08-21, 7:00 pm

Teri,

1. I don't know. How much does a scripter cost for a day? (-:

2. We are hoping for a generally uniform approach in numbering. The numbers in the center of the areas, and starting in the upper left corner and ending in the lower right. We would like each number to be as close to the preseeding number as is 'reasonabl
y' possible.

Jeffrey_J._Castaline@adobeforums.com

2006-08-21, 7:00 pm

Kurt,

They are strokes. and 'approximately centered' would be fine. Doing stained glass is a Macro art, not a Micro one. We are looking to easily, visually identify each pattern piece

Gregory_M._Phillips@adobeforums.com

2006-08-24, 7:03 pm

Jeffery, I don't know if this will help and may be poo-pooed by the Illustrator Big-Heads, but a different approach might be to start with a pre-numbered Grid Template. Individual pcs might not be numbered (i.e. contain more than one number) but they woul
d be traceable back to the master drawing and order would be clear.
Another idea would be to use a grid drawing placed on a different layer and you could scale it to suit.

ex.

| | |
--1---2---3--
| | |
--4---5---6--
| | |

Good Luck.

Greg

bob_dod@adobeforums.com

2006-08-25, 7:01 pm

Assuming that each segment of your design has a fill and a stroke, what about simply taking the time to number each layer in the layer palette and referring to the layer palette as you work? Then you can click on any design element and see what # it is. O
r click on #122 and see where it is on your illustration.

bob_dod@adobeforums.com

2006-08-25, 7:01 pm

You could also create auto fill numbers in Excel as many as you think you need, copy the cells, switch over to Illus. and without clicking anywhere / paste / and you'll get all the numbers with a bounding box of sorts. get rid of the bounding box and you
have lots of separate numbers that you can distribute - then group with its art element

Bert Philippus

2006-08-25, 7:01 pm

I don't know if this will help and may be poo-pooed by the Illustrator
Big-Heads

I'll give you poo-poo in a minute.

Gregory_M._Phillips@adobeforums.com

2006-08-25, 7:01 pm

Bert, I would expect nothing less.