The Document Utilities dialog centralizes actions that can have effects over multiple Adobe Illustrator documents at once. These actions primarily serve the purpose of automating parts of atlas creation workflows. Document Utilities contains four actions: Crop to Documents, Export Documents to Geospatial PDF, Export Documents to Image, Make Index Over Multiple Documents.
Requirements
There may be specific requirements for an action to be usable within a document. Crop to Documents requires at least one MAP Area Layer with a coordinate system to be used as the crop layer. Make Index over Multiple Documents requires at least one grid in a MAP View with Layers that can be indexed.
Using Document Utilities
On the MAPublisher toolbar, click the Document Utilities button or the menu choose Object > MAPublisher > Document Utilities.
In the Document Utilities dialog, click Click to select under Documents to Include to specify which documents the action will be applied to. Then choose an action from the Action drop-down list.
Crop to Documents
Crops data from one or more source files into individual .ai files, one per grid cell. Accepts either data embedded in the blueprint file or data held in separate linked .ai files.
In the Document Utilities dialog, select ‘Crop to documents’ from the Action drop-down list.
MAP View — Choose the MAP View that contains the crop layer.
Crop layer — Choose the Area layer whose features define the crop extents. Use the drop-down below to specify whether to crop using the area shape or the bounding box of each feature.
Crop buffer — Optionally specify a buffer distance to expand each crop extent by a fixed amount.
Filename attribute — Choose the attribute whose values will be used to name each output file.
Output files — Choose how the artboard of each output file is sized. Select ‘Set artboard size’ to specify a custom width and height, or choose another option to derive the artboard dimensions from the crop extents.
Output directory — Specify the folder where the cropped .ai files will be saved. Type a path directly or click ‘Browse’ to navigate to a location.
Click ‘OK’ to run the crop. A separate .ai file is created for each area feature in the crop layer, containing all cropped layers from the specified documents.
Make Index Over Multiple Documents
Generates a unified place-name index spanning all atlas page files, eliminating the need to manually compile references across multiple documents.
In the Document Utilities dialog, select ‘Make index over multiple documents’ from the Action drop-down list. A single combined map index is created for the current document and all documents listed under Documents to Include. Indexed features are identified by their document and cell identifier.
ℹ️ Important: The name of the grid selected in the dialog has to match the name of the grid in each of the additional documents. The Map View, layer names, and attribute names also need to match.
Specify Grid — Choose the grid that defines the cell reference system used in the index. The Grid Name, MAP View, and Layer are shown for reference. Click ‘Specify Grid…’ to change the grid selection.
Filename — Enter a path for the output index file (.txt), or click ‘Browse’ to navigate to a save location. A green checkmark confirms the filename is valid.
Specify Multi-page Separators — Define the separators used to format references spanning multiple pages or cells (e.g. 1:A-C2,2:B7). The preview rows show how entries will appear for sample locations.
Select Index Method — Choose whether to make the index based on feature label or feature position and attribute value. If using attribute value, choose the ‘Feature layer’ and the ‘Attribute’ to use as the index label.
Spatial Filter — Enable ‘Spatially filter the source art’ to restrict indexing to features that fall within a defined boundary. Choose whether to filter by art on a layer, then select the layer from the drop-down. Click ‘Specify bounding attributes’ to define the filter geometry using attribute-based bounds.
Click ‘Specify Advanced Options…’ to configure output formatting, separators, and additional attributes (see below).
Advanced Options
The Advanced Options dialog contains two tabs: Formatting and Additional Attributes.
Formatting tab
Sort By — Choose the sort order for index entries (e.g. by feature label).
Include letter headers — Enable to add alphabetical section headers to the output index.
Output Format — Choose the format for index entries. Options include Single-line condensed, Single-line expanded and multiline. Enable ‘Treat grouped text as a single entry’ to merge repeated label occurrences into one record.
Specify Separators — Define the characters used to separate the label, attribute, page number, cell range, and multiple locations within an entry. A live preview updates to reflect the current separator and format settings.
Additional Attributes tab
Select one or more attributes from the listed feature layer to include alongside the label in each index entry. These attributes help uniquely identify features that share the same name. Enable ‘Apply locale formatting to numbers’ to format numeric attribute values with locale-appropriate separators (e.g. thousand separators).
Click ‘OK’ to close Advanced Options and return to the main dialog. Click ‘OK’ in the Document Utilities dialog to generate the index file.
Export Documents to Geospatial PDF
Batch-exports all atlas pages to geospatial PDF in a single operation.
In the Document Utilities dialog, select ‘Export documents to geospatial PDF’ from the Action drop-down list.
PDF files are created in the specified output directory for the current document and all documents listed under Documents to Include.
Output directory — Specify the folder where the exported PDF files will be saved. Type a path directly or click ‘Browse’ to navigate to a location.
Click ‘OK’ to export. One geospatial PDF is generated per document.
Export Documents to Image
Batch-exports all atlas pages to GeoTIFF or other image formats. Supports a reusable settings file to maintain consistent export parameters across projects.
In the Document Utilities dialog, select ‘Export documents to image’ from the Action drop-down list.
Image files are created in the specified output directory for the current document and all documents listed under Documents to Include.
Output directory — Specify the folder where the exported image files will be saved. Type a path directly or click ‘Browse’ to navigate to a location.
Settings file — Choose a saved export settings file from the drop-down list, or use the controls to create a new settings file (+), duplicate an existing one, edit the current one, or remove it. Using a settings file ensures consistent image export parameters (format, resolution, color mode, etc.) across multiple atlas projects.
Click ‘OK’ to export. One image file is generated per document.
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