Streamlining Your Artboard Layout with Adobe Illustrator

As a designer working in the Architectural Signage industry, I've found that managing multiple artboards and revisions can be a daunting task. In this article, I'll share my process for keeping track of my artboards and how I use scripting to automate the update of my artboard names.

I start by using Adobe Illustrator's 'Save a Copy' feature with a single-digit number, followed by selecting the 'Save each artboard to a separate file' box and the 'Range' radio button. This allows me to easily keep track of multiple revisions and iterations of my design.

To make global changes within the same file, I take advantage of Adobe Illustrator's ability to use multiple artboards. This has significantly reduced the time it takes to implement changes, as previously, I would have had to work on separate files for each revision.

One common scenario in my industry is when revisions require global 'callout' changes and detailed dimensions using HotDoor CADtools. With Adobe Illustrator's multiple artboard feature, I can make these changes quickly and efficiently.

To further streamline my workflow, I created an action that updates the data set and inserts a menu item. This script allows me to execute custom code within the document, making it possible for me to automate tasks such as updating artboard names.

In this article, I'll focus on how to access the variables content using scripting in Adobe Illustrator. While Adobe's 'Variables' or 'Data Merge' features are primarily designed for exporting variable documents from a template, I'll show you that with custom code, it is possible to traverse records in memory and update artboard names accordingly.

By leveraging Adobe Illustrator's scripting capabilities, designers can automate tasks and simplify their workflow, making it easier to manage complex designs and revisions. Whether you're working on architectural signage or any other type of design project, this article will provide valuable insights into how to optimize your artboard layout using Adobe Illustrator.

Adobe illustrator artboard layout