Need Input on best way to handle this task. Can you help???

[MJS]

I have a repetitive task I need to do in Illustrator and need to know the best way to handle doing it. I know a little bit of Illustrator but am far from being a master.

I have hundreds of line drawing files that I need have the inner shapes white and the outer shapes black. Some of these line drawings will have as much as 30 different images inside of one single file. Like I said I know a little bit of Illustrator but not much. This task seems like it could take forever, but I have to think that there is an easy way to conquer it.

Below is an example of one file. Note: This file is as easy as it gets. Most have around 50 inner shapes.

Can someone point my to the best way to handle this task? Is there some kind of script or something I can use?

Please let me know if more information is required from my end.
Thanks

[Albacore]

Firstly MJS welcome to the forum and I hope we can assist your here when we can. It is the last bit of that first sentence I would bear in mind as I took your drawing into Illy to have a proper look at it and to experiment with a few actions that I made up. Using the pathfinder tool I tried to carry out a task similar to the one that you have shown here and record them but there are quite a few inconsistencies that I can't resolve i.e. the tail and the sun are the main ones.
It's not a script that I could do as this requires knowledge in either j.s. or viz. basic to control the actions so I can only really do actions. Have a look here and see if you can understand what to do and then record your actions on simple shapes that you might use on your larger drawings (its just the help file from older version of Illy): http://help.adobe.com/en_US/illustra...196cbc5f-62a7a

[MJS]

Firstly MJS welcome to the forum and I hope we can assist your here when we can. It is the last bit of that first sentence I would bear in mind as I took your drawing into Illy to have a proper look at it and to experiment with a few actions that I made up. Using the pathfinder tool I tried to carry out a task similar to the one that you have shown here and record them but there are quite a few inconsistencies that I can't resolve i.e. the tail and the sun are the main ones.
It's not a script that I could do as this requires knowledge in either j.s. or viz. basic to control the actions so I can only really do actions. Have a look here and see if you can understand what to do and then record your actions on simple shapes that you might use on your larger drawings (its just the help file from older version of Illy): http://help.adobe.com/en_US/illustra...196cbc5f-62a7a

Thanks Albacore, I will take a look into that. I was really unsure as to where to start or if it was even possible to automate the task. There have been several times I have done a time consuming task only to find out later that there was an easier way to do it.

Thanks again.

[Albacore]

That's always the way of it, I have set routines that I go through every time I start a new drawing in Illy. I takes a new tutorial to stop me going through the same old way of doing things. I hope I am not stepping on folks toes here but the look of your drawing of the horse in the frame has the look of a Live Trace which has been heavily modified. Now there are a few scripts around which will do this for you and look for stray points to.

[MJS]

That's always the way of it, I have set routines that I go through every time I start a new drawing in Illy. I takes a new tutorial to stop me going through the same old way of doing things. I hope I am not stepping on folks toes here but the look of your drawing of the horse in the frame has the look of a Live Trace which has been heavily modified. Now there are a few scripts around which will do this for you and look for stray points to.

Hi Albacore,
When you talk about the scripts, can you give me an example?
Thanks

[Albacore]

Well Adobe have a few in Bridge and there is a script for Live/Image Trace for Illustrator which works. Here is a quick tip to get it running: http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book...NlYzImcXVlcnk9

There are others but if you want to deviate from what is written look at the Adobe forum reply: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1067778
Do a search on the topic. I got a script from Real World Illustrator and I looked and searched on their site but can't find it so sorry there. Log into Adobe Exchange if you got an account and have a look there where you will find many scripts and it is a good resource to for all your Adobe needs. http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm