Question Is there an action, software, plugin etc to automatically add dims to a image?

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Hello All,
I have been constantly questing to make my company more efficient. one of our nagging time consumers is adding dims to an image for proofing. Is there anything out there that can do this somewhat automated if not fully automated? We use the Adobe Suite along with CorelDraw in case there are scripts, actions, macros, or plugins for these tools.

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[Jay Grooms]

I use the Specify script (in illustrator) works great, one or two clicks.

https://github.com/adamdehaven/Specify

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

I use the Specify script (in illustrator) works great, one or two clicks.

https://github.com/adamdehaven/Specify

Thank you! I will try this.

 

[iPrintStuff]

That script looks like it does exactly what you’re after, gonna check it out myself. I have a little tip for doing something along these lines but in vast quantities. Though it will just be a string of text so should just be used for basic needs, would like to see what you guys can come up with though!

So we made a generic health and safety sign catalogue, composed of about 2000 signs. We made it in indesign. After making it we decided adding dimensions would be ideal due to customers seeing a 600x200 sign and asking for it 200x200 (I don’t know about you guys but most of our customers struggle with proportions). Let’s just say I wasn’t up for individually adding dimensions to them all.

This was a while ago so forgive me if I’m fuzzy on a couple details. But I think all we had to do was create a custom static caption. I.e caption setup, then just add in dimensions from the metadata.

Then select all the links (assuming here that your proofing process requires a link, otherwise ignore me) and create static (or live, think there was a reason I went for static though) For everything.

That part of the process took about a minute. The rest of it took about 10. Simply because it only seemed to want to bring in the dimensions In a weird unit, I think we wanted mm but it was coming through as pixels. I then went to the internet and just got a few of the sizes, converted to mm online then did a find and replace through the catalogue. Voila!

 

[myront]

Corel Macro is 1 click. You can preset your defaults to read as inches, mm, use arrow points or not, colors etc. Customize it to dimensions each shape selected or all as a whole. I assigned my "d" key as a hot key.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Corel Macro is 1 click. You can preset your defaults to read as inches, mm, use arrow points or not, colors etc. Customize it to dimensions each shape selected or all as a whole. I assigned my "d" key as a hot key.

View attachment 147527

I like CorelDraw, my designers hate it. I use dimensions Gator in coreldraw. I ended up ordering O2 Creative PowerScripts for them... it looks to add superpowers to illustrator.

 

[bannertime]

That 02 Creative stuff looks pretty legit. With the larger canvas size and those items like the Grommet/Hem scrips, Illustrator is looking pretty good to me right now.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

That 02 Creative stuff looks pretty legit. With the larger canvas size and those items like the Grommet/Hem scrips, Illustrator is looking pretty good to me right now.

What is the new limit, I saw it was 50% bigger but some people are saying even more than that.

 

[iPrintStuff]

I think I worked it out at around 57m/almost 2300 inches. which should be big enough for most jobs lol. That’s approx 10x bigger than the previous largest size but they’re saying 100x bigger on their release notes (100x bigger than their “default” canvas size though, carefully worded)

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

I think I worked it out at around 57m/almost 2300 inches. which should be big enough for most jobs lol. That’s approx 10x bigger than the previous largest size but they’re saying 100x bigger on their release notes (100x bigger than their “default” canvas size though, carefully worded)

Finally caught up to CorelDraw after a decade.

 

[Zendavor Signs]

I like CorelDraw, my designers hate it. I use dimensions Gator in coreldraw. I ended up ordering O2 Creative PowerScripts for them... it looks to add superpowers to illustrator.

+1 for O2 Powerscripts - I use the Dimensions and Step and Repeat often

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

+1 for O2 Powerscripts - I use the Dimensions and Step and Repeat often

I got it recommended to us and for the full suite it's worth it. My designer said he should be able to save at least 20mins a day using these so it should pay off in a month, easily.

 

[MikePro]

CadTools by HotDoor
been a timesaver for us for 20years now.

sure, a few lines with a dimension attached can be hand-drawn and scale can be math'd out with a calculator BUT seriously just try it out & thank me later.
scales & dimension labels aside, this thing has TONS of useful tricks. One of my favorites, is that I'm able to just select a set of letters in scale and it tells me the sum of perimeters of the individual letters.... and that value now becomes my trimcap order for a set of channel letters.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

CadTools by HotDoor
been a timesaver for us for 20years now.

sure, a few lines with a dimension attached can be hand-drawn and scale can be math'd out with a calculator BUT seriously just try it out & thank me later.
scales & dimension labels aside, this thing has TONS of useful tricks. One of my favorites, is that I'm able to just select a set of letters in scale and it tells me the sum of perimeters of the individual letters.... and that value now becomes my trimcap order for a set of channel letters.

Awesome, the auto scaling would be really helpful in a lot of situations for us too!

 

[myront]

I have over 200 macros for Corel. Once you learn how to write the code or piece together different ones it's amazing what one can do. Also use custom templates.
- add/remove grommets yet leave dots for print, add cut line and fold line all in one sweep
- add/remove black or white dimensions
- distribute shapes across page border or within a given rectangle border
- label colors
- create registration marks & layers for plotting
- create weed lines
- swap shapes
- swap colors
- insert wind hole clipart
- Insert special text characters (don't always remember the codes)
- tell me line length
- activate next layer
- move all shapes with my "cut" outline color to cut layer
- change all text line spacing from point to percentage
- delete empty layers
- delete empty pages
- convert autocad circles to true ellipse
- convert rectangle that has been converted to curves back to a rectangle
- quadsect and/or halve any shape
- insert arrow clipart, octagon, triangle, 1/4" or 3/8" circle
- replace a shape/s with a clones (change in parent shape changes them all)
- replace shape/s with another
- scale shape from another (scale vehicle to full size)
- add bleed to shape/s
- remove hidden objects from doc (common when importing 3rd party files)
- character count
- unlock all shapes in doc
- chrome effect to selected text
- butt shape to another top/bottom, left/right
- move shape according to it's size i.e. 10" sq can move 10" in any direction with keyboard shortcut
- instantly nest 18 x 24 signs to 10-up for printing
- rotate shapes incrementally with keyboard input
- rotate shape back to 0