1 Reply Latest reply: Nov 1, 2011 10:00 AM by Mylenium RSS

    Interpreting InDesign Layers in Illustrator

    Paul Lerch Community Member

      I have a series of attempts I have made to pass through layers, with their names, to Illustrator from InDesign. I have 6 layers that apply to objects across 7 pages, for instance. I understand that the concept of layers is different in Illustrator, where artboard-specific ungrouped objects are the default and in some cases, when there is a clipping path on an object, there is a group nesting the elements of that complex object. What I want to do is either bypass or use the Acrobat Layers export from InDesign to make a PDF that is exported from InDesign present the layer objects with their same name.

       

      If I were using Acrobat as an intermediary, I would be able to use the Content panel in Acrobat X and manipulate the objects with Dictionary Items. However, the objects I am concerned about are shapes. Those objects are coming through to Illustrator (even when I have messed with those objects in Acrobat) as objects named <Path> all in a single default layer. If I want to group objects across artboards for selective visibility, I need to interpret the thumbnail in the layers panel which is too confusing. I need control over the names that the <Path> objects have, but prior to Illustrator launching the InDesign PDF.

       

      Any ideas? Export PDF from InDesign and keep layer names to distribute to the objects' names in the Illustrator layers panel. Specifically, for multiple-paged documents. I'm using the PDF Pages to Artboards applescript to ingest my multiple-paged PDF into artboards in Illustrator. However, I have had the same problem with single-paged PDFs going from InDesign directly into Illustrator through the standard Open dialog.

       

      Thanks Adobe Forums!

        • 1. Re: Interpreting InDesign Layers in Illustrator
          Mylenium CommunityMVP

          AI doesn't even retain its own layer/ sub-layer/ group names after shuffling stuff around, so take a guess how likely it would be to achieve what you want. Or in otehr words: Unless the PDF was created from AI and has the editable data attached, this is very much a hopeless case. And I'm not sure if your sideway use of layers in ID is a good way of managing your data to begin with. I think you're trying to see something in them that they aren't. They're not per se "layout layers", but rather just a secondary meta structure for versioning or multi-language docs to define specific dependencies. Otherwise ID isn't much different from AI - it uses arranged objects and doesn't care about a strict layer metaphor or stacking. As long as it gives the desired appearance, it will group and arrange objects in whatever ways you fancy and that is defined on the per-object level as a property of the object, not a document layer or something...

           

          Mylenium