Automation Engine 12 and Scripting

[PrepressDan]

Has anybody developed any scripts to work with Automation Engine 12? I'm just curious as to what kind of uses it might have in the industry. I'm excited about the capabilities, just not sure where to apply them.

 

[Simon Ivarsson]

One simple but still quite useful script is to automate pdf creation from Indesign etc..

 

[StillWaiting]

One simple but still quite useful script is to automate pdf creation from Indesign etc..

Can you elaborate on this, PDF creation from InDesign. Would you know how to get an Normalized PDF from InDesign so it will go through AE

 

[Simon Ivarsson]

Not an normailzed PDF I'm afraid. But an normal PDF from ID isn't any problem.

 

[StillWaiting]

Not an normailzed PDF I'm afraid. But an normal PDF from ID isn't any problem.

Why would you need a script for that? Export as PDF from InDesign, done.

 

[Simon Ivarsson]

No you don't.
Everything that automation can do can also be done manually....

 

[PrepressDan]

Cool, works like a charm. Wrote a script that will take a indesign package file, open the .indd, relink if needed, load fonts and output a PDF based on my export presets. After that the workflow normalizes the PDF.

 

[Colorblind]

Why would you need a script for that? Export as PDF from InDesign, done.

If it's something you do all the time, several times a day and one single click on a script can save you 20-30 seconds each time (go to PDF export menu, select the good preset, select the appropriate saving location, click the "save" button, then click the "export" button) then the math is pretty easy to do, not to mention the human error factor you get rid of. I wrote a similar AppleScript for our Studio people that would make a low res PDF and attach it to an outgoing email message for client approval. The script had a log file embedded to calculate time completion and so on. After a year, the total productivity gain was 11 hours. Not bad for a script that took less than an hour to write+test.

 

[PrepressDan]

Each of our customers upload files through our portal. These files can be anything (AI, PDF, indd, etc....). So I made a workflow that takes in the uploaded files from our portal. It first routes them based on file type. If they are not PDF's we make them into PDF's and then we preflight them and pass back the preflight report to the portal. This has allowed us to give our customers as much time as possible to get us a correct file. No longer waiting for the file to be checked while the job bag sits in the rack. When the file passes preflight, the workflow notifies our CSR's and they enter a job into the MIS system which in turn gives Automation Engine a JDF file to create the job to store the "good" customer file.

 

[madmac]

This is good stuff. How did you get the image links correct? As the links will be to images on original system and you need to get Indesign to look in a certain directory to find the images.

Also what have you done about the fonts and missing fonts?

Could you perhaps upload the script as an example?

 

[raffy_canarecio]

there is a lot you can do in Automation engine with scripting, create a workflow with script runner to run your scripts and create a multiple deliverable files that your customers required for sure you will get a lot of time saving rather than doing it manually.