The only way I have found to do this is to copy the contents of the original into a new document.

Here is my code:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

activate

open your_doc.ai --replace with your filename and path

tell me to do shell script "sleep 3"

tell application "System Events" --Select all.

tell application "Adobe Illustrator" to activate

key code 0 using command down

end tell

tell application "System Events" --Group objects, may not be necessary.

tell application "Adobe Illustrator" to activate

key code 5 using command down

end tell

tell application "System Events" --Copy selection.

tell application "Adobe Illustrator" to activate

key code 8 using command down

end tell

close this_file without saving --out with the old, in with the new

--make a new artboard with the appropriate dimentions

set docRef to make new document with properties {«class caCS»:«constant eCLSeCyM», «class pSHw»:205.2, «class pSHh»:61.2, «class pNAr»:1, «class pALy»:«constant eDALpGrR», «class pASp»:20.0, «class pARC»:3}

tell application "System Events"

tell application "Adobe Illustrator" to activate

key code 9 using command down

end tell

end tell

------------------

In the above, "«class pSHw»:" is width in pixels, "«class pSHw»:" is height in pixels, «class pNAr»: is the number of artboards.

The artboard with automatically be centered.

I figured this out from messing with the default scripts.

There is no way to do it in the current document, so this is the only workaround.

Cheers.

I get a crash in VB when I try it in CS4 VB script.

aiDoc.ArtBoard.ArtboardRect(0)=333
aiDoc.ArtBoard.ArtboardRect(1)=1182
aiDoc.ArtBoard.ArtboardRect(2)=1197
aiDoc.ArtBoard.ArtboardRect(3)=318

I wrote a Javascript that will resize the artboard in Illustrator CS4.

 
/**********************************************************
 
FitArtboardToArt.jsx

DESCRIPTION
In Adobe Illustrator CS4, fit the artboard to the visible bounds of a document.
NOTE: The script leaves behind some artifacts in the document window but is correct.

Darryl Zurn, 2009-11-25 daz-scripting@zzzurn.com
 
**********************************************************/

if (app.documents.length > 0) {
     var docRef = app.activeDocument;
     if (docRef.artboards.length > 1) 
     {
          alert('Need exactly one artboard');
          quit;
          }
     // Found 1 artboard
     
     var myVisibleBounds = docRef.pageItems[0].visibleBounds;
     
     // The VisibleBounds rect is in this order: left, right, top, bottom
     // so use variables to show which side we are using
     var myLeft = 0;   var myRight = 1;   var myTop = 2;   var myBottom = 3; 
     for ( var i = 1; i < docRef.pageItems.length ; i += 1 ) 
     { 
          // We want the ultimate maximum bounds, so select the minimum left and bottom, and max right and top of our rect.
          myVisibleBounds[myLeft  ] = Math.min( myVisibleBounds[myLeft  ], docRef.pageItems[i].visibleBounds[myLeft  ] );
          myVisibleBounds[myRight ] = Math.max( myVisibleBounds[myRight ], docRef.pageItems[i].visibleBounds[myRight ] );
          myVisibleBounds[myTop   ] = Math.max( myVisibleBounds[myTop   ], docRef.pageItems[i].visibleBounds[myTop   ] );
          myVisibleBounds[myBottom] = Math.min( myVisibleBounds[myBottom], docRef.pageItems[i].visibleBounds[myBottom] );
          }
     // We have our maximum bounds, so use it to set the document's (only) artboard
     docRef.artboards[0].artboardRect = myVisibleBounds;
}
else {
     alert('Open a document before running this script', 'Error running FitArtboardToArt.jsx');
}

Sorry forgot to take comment out of previous post (not that it stops it from working):

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

tell current document

tell artboard 1

--get original page size

set artPage to artboard rectangle

set x1orig to item 1 of artPage

set y1orig to item 2 of artPage

set x2orig to item 3 of artPage

set y2orig to item 4 of artPage

set newHeight to text returned of (display dialog "enter increase in height in mm" default answer "")

set newWidth to text returned of (display dialog "enter increase in width in mm" default answer "")

--determine new page size

set x1new to (x1orig - newWidth / 2 * 2.834645) as real

set y1new to (y1orig + newHeight / 2 * 2.834645) as real

set x2new to (x2orig + newWidth / 2 * 2.834645) as real

set y2new to (y2orig - newHeight / 2 * 2.834645) as real

--set new page size

set artboard rectangle to {x1new, y1new, x2new, y2new}

end tell --artboard

end tell --document

end tell --AI

I got a message from another user who had modified my script to ask the user how much to add, and then did it. I thought it had been sent to the rest of the group too, but I don't see it and I think I deleted the message.

I'll try my other computer to see if the script is still around, or hopefully they can repost it to the forum.

Darryl

Hi,

First an elegant solution, and then a question.

If your goal is to reduce the size of the artboard to the visible boundaries of the artwork, this works like gang busters.  (I can't take credit, but I can share it.)

#target illustrator

var doc = app.activeDocument;
doc.artboards[0].artboardRect = doc.visibleBounds;

Now, I'd like to enlarge the artboard on all sides by say, 20px.  I don't want to set specific X and Y coordinates, since the art I will be running it on is variably-sized.

How do we then enlarge the artboard dimensions relatively from the new artboard values? Thanks for the Applescript, Panda, btw.

This should be easy, but I can't quite figure it out. Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance, you'll be saving my rear end.

-t

Some thing like this should do it for CS5… Plus I did it so it's simple enough to adjust…

#target illustrator
 
var doc = app.activeDocument;
 
var docVB = doc.visibleBounds;
 
var left = docVB[0] - 20;
var top = docVB[1] + 20;
var right = docVB[2] + 20;
var bottom = docVB[3] - 20;
 
var ab = doc.artboards.getActiveArtboardIndex();
 
doc.artboards[ab].artboardRect = [left,top,right,bottom];

Firstly… You could just save that snippet in to Illustrator's scripts folder, make a action that calls it via 'insert menu item' from the flyout, once you have the recorded and saved action use as a batch… The other way would be to have a purpose built script that does the whole of the processing for you… Much would depend up on the files in question where they are within your file system… If you need the latter then start a new topic this is an old thread… If you go down the action route don't forget that the script call will be forgotten by the app at quit… A much complained about issue…

This script seems to be exactly what I'm looking for, also, but it's not working for me. I suspect my problem is that I'm in CS3. Can anyone dumb it down to work in CS3?