Align Artwork to Artboard in Illustrator via javascript

Question

I'm attempting to position an object in illustrator to the bottom, left of the art board via javascript. I can access the object with javascript and perform function to it like "rotate"

if ( app.documents.length > 0) {
    doc = app.activeDocument;
}


   function traceImage(doc) {

         doc.pageItems[0].rotate (30);


}

traceImage(doc);

But I'm having trouble finding a simple way to position/align the "pageItems[0]" in the bottom/left of the art board. Is there a simpler approach to this other than calculating it's current distance and then moving it? Thanks.

Answer 1

There probably an easier way than this, but this works.

if ( app.documents.length > 0) {
    doc = app.activeDocument;

     // Get the active Artboard index
    var activeAB = doc.artboards[doc.artboards.getActiveArtboardIndex()];

    // Get the Height of the Artboard
    var artboardBottom = activeAB.artboardRect[3];

    // The page item you want to move. Reference it how you will. This just
    // obviously grabs the first pageItem in the document.
    var myPageItem = doc.pageItems[0];

    // Here is where the magic happens. Set the poition of the item.
    // [0,0] would be at the top left, so we have to compensate for the artboard
    // height. We add myPageItem's height for offset, or we'd end up BELOW
    // the artboard.
    myPageItem.position = [0, artboardBottom + myPageItem.height];
}

Essentially, we have to set the top left corner of our pageItem to the bottom left of the artboard. Unfortunately, that would put our pageItem below the Artboard, so we adjust the offset by the height of our pageItem:

Answer 2

Similarly if you're looking to center the item to the artboard, you'd need to handle the height and width a little differently.

if ( app.documents.length > 0) {
    doc = app.activeDocument;

    // Get the active Artboard index
    var activeAB = doc.artboards[doc.artboards.getActiveArtboardIndex()];

    // Get the right most X point of the Artboard
    // artboardX + artboardWidth
    var artboardRight = activeAB.artboardRect[0] + activeAB.artboardRect[2];
    // Get the bottom most Y point of the Artboard
    // artboardY + artboardHeight
    var artboardBottom = activeAB.artboardRect[1] + activeAB.artboardRect[3];
   
    // The page item you want to move. Reference it how you will. This just
    // obviously grabs the first pageItem in the document.
    var myPageItem = doc.pageItems[0];

    // Here is where the magic happens. Set the position of the item.
    // [0,0] would be at the top left, so we have to compensate for the    artboard
    // height and width. We add item's height then split it for the vertical
    // offset, or we'd  end up BELOW the artboard.
    // Then we subtract the item's width and split the difference to center the
    // item horizontally.
    var horziontalCenterPosition = (artboardRight - myPageItem.width)/2;
    var verticalCenterPosition = (artboardBottom + myPageItem.height)/2;

    myPageItem.position = [horziontalCenterPosition, verticalCenterPosition];
}