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Illustrator batch action... slow and even slower after short time

Explorer ,
Nov 25, 2016 Nov 25, 2016

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I have around 50.000 qr codes generated through zint, And I made an action witch changes the rgb to cmyk and to 100k black and after that saves them in different folder

the thing is... 1) because it is opening them normally with full preview... its kinda slow at this process (around 15 files per minute on ram disk, with 5kb files)

2) after while running this action in batch mode... computer starting lagging and the posses starts to slow down until illustrator or just stop executing the action, or run out of memory !?!

besides that, is there any way the action to run in ((background)) without showing the layout?

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Valorous Hero ,
Nov 25, 2016 Nov 25, 2016

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I think there's a statement that says your batch process for Illustrator should be in batches of 500 for safety.

How many files does it go through before it stops?

Try  the following to increase the action speed:

To not show the layout, try starting with one blank document that is sized down very very small in your OS. Have your general settings open new documents as tabs so that any new document opened will also be sized very small. Also you can hide all Illustrator palettes with the Tab key.

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Explorer ,
Nov 25, 2016 Nov 25, 2016

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sometimes 70 some other times 200+-

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Explorer ,
Nov 25, 2016 Nov 25, 2016

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+ I have done this.. (I disabled the welcome screen and have hidden the the panels with tab) besides that if the windows will be too small, it's says (can't opent the illustration, there is not enough room for the windows, increase document area and try again.)

so it still shows the action in proggress

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Valorous Hero ,
Nov 25, 2016 Nov 25, 2016

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Wow I have never even had a chance to see such a warning message. What do these files look like?

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Community Expert ,
Nov 26, 2016 Nov 26, 2016

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Hi TimosPodroushnyack and Silly-V

This is a well known „issue“:

Drag the right bottom corner of the program next to the upper left. Try to open a document. You will see the following screen (in your own language)

NotEnoughRoomForTheWindow__AI.png

Regards

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Valorous Hero ,
Nov 26, 2016 Nov 26, 2016

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Wow , what is a person supposed to do?

TimosPodroushnyack​ - are you able to provide a sample file?

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People's Champ ,
Nov 27, 2016 Nov 27, 2016

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ExtendScript isn't dealing well with huge arrays (talking of 50k files here). I got InDesign script which were dramatically improved by chunking huge arrays into smaller parts. Basically the execution delay was exponentially slower and slower.

However if this kind of process is your daily job, I may advise to consider other tools. For example, changing colors on pdf files could be achieved by either Callas PDFToolBox Server or Enfocus PitStop Server. Remember that Illustrator hasn't been designed as a huge production automated engine

FWIW

Loic

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Valorous Hero ,
Nov 27, 2016 Nov 27, 2016

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This is regarding the batch actions feature, which is supposed to be 'safer' than using a batch ExtendScript - the safest way to do a batch set of files in Illustrator. If even this fails, then yes there is no choice but to use other dedicated software or some kind of OS scripting

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Community Expert ,
Nov 27, 2016 Nov 27, 2016

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I was going to recommend Enfocus PitStop Server, it has a 30 day fully functional demo too! I can help with a PitStop Action List file if required.

The caveat being that these QR Codes may or may not be PDF compatible? If they were it would be easy enough to batch rename them from .ai to .pdf using Adobe Bridge or other file renaming tools and then let PitStop Server process them.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 27, 2016 Nov 27, 2016

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Another option could be to include initial steps to view the artwork in Outline mode and to perhaps zoom in multiple times in order to “simplify” the screen redraw to hopefully make the batch action run faster.

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Explorer ,
Nov 28, 2016 Nov 28, 2016

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I uploaded a small part of qr codes with the action here
http://media.mouzenidis-travel.ru/Design/Open/QR.zip

http://media.mouzenidis-travel.ru/Design/Open/QR.zip

I have tried outlines preview etc, everything in the matter... but nothing helped

I don't have to do it everyday... just one time... but now i have 50.000 to process but in the future they will be 500.000 in total

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Community Expert ,
Nov 28, 2016 Nov 28, 2016

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Ah, so they are EPS, not AI (for whatever reason I thought that their native format was AI)…

The files are CMYK – 100% K only… I thought that they were RGB?

Can you provide a link to a handfull of original QR codes that have NOT been edited?

I think that I may have an idea!

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Explorer ,
Nov 28, 2016 Nov 28, 2016

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Community Expert ,
Nov 28, 2016 Nov 28, 2016

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Thanks, not as easy as I had hoped…

If the original EPS is ASCII, then batch edit in a capable text editor changing the code from RGB=0/0/0 to CMYK=0/0/0/100… Or if the original EPS is binary then use a hex editor to mass update the files (work on copies so as not to mess up the originals).

Anyway that was the theory!

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Community Expert ,
Nov 28, 2016 Nov 28, 2016

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Back to the drawing board… OK, it took Acrobat Distiller approx. 1 second per file to create a Press Quality CMYK PDF with the QR code coloured as 0cmy100k.

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Explorer ,
Nov 28, 2016 Nov 28, 2016

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I need them in eps and beside that... in the script there is not only converting the color... its merging the black squares and removing the white ones

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Community Expert ,
Nov 28, 2016 Nov 28, 2016

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Even just converting from RGB to CMYK PDF using Distiller, you have around 14 hours worth of “work” ahead of you. Illustrator is obviously slower and then adding in extra steps will slow it down further. I presume that you are running the action in “accelerated” mode? Perhaps the only way to get faster performance is to script this.

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Valorous Hero ,
Nov 28, 2016 Nov 28, 2016

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Yea, how about just creating the QR codes inside of Illustrator in the first place?

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Explorer ,
Nov 29, 2016 Nov 29, 2016

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"running the action in “accelerated” mode?"

what do you mean?

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Community Expert ,
Nov 29, 2016 Nov 29, 2016

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I am guessing that you are already doing this by default, the action can run accelerated, step by step or pause for N seconds:

playback.png

The more steps you do, the slower the action will run… So you may need to question every step in the action, do you really need it, or is it just nice to have? Could a more expedient/pragmatic approach serve you better?

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Explorer ,
Nov 29, 2016 Nov 29, 2016

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Yes it is in accelerated

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Community Expert ,
Nov 29, 2016 Nov 29, 2016

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Then it is as good as an action gets I am afraid!

I had a simple but multi-step action that processed a CAD drawing… In accelerated mode it took around 15 seconds to complete.

Vasily Hall wrote me a script.

It did the same thing, however it finished processing in 1.5 seconds!

If I was you, I’d contract Silly-V!

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Valorous Hero ,
Nov 29, 2016 Nov 29, 2016

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I got the chance to open the file and I was surprised it's just a little QR code - just as stated, so maybe something about the EPS format is the problem. If I had to solve this, aside from programmatically creating the QR code inside of Illustrator itself, I would be inclined to attempt a scripted workflow where a placed file item is continually duplicated and replaced, or just continually placed as a placed item, instead of using the file open action.

Of course, the placing of the file would be just the foundation, subsequent steps would be embedding and further processing.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 29, 2016 Nov 29, 2016

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I need them in eps and beside that... in the script there is not only converting the color... its merging the black squares and removing the white ones

Why do you require CMYK?

Why is EPS required?

Why do you need to simplify the “complex” construction of these QR codes?

Why do you need to remove the white box behind the code?

Perhaps if you can explain the next steps and/or entire workflow the forum would better understand where you are going.

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