Dimmed Template Layer isn't dimming

I have an imported image as its own layer. I have "Template" and "Dim Image to 50%" selected in the layer options box. However, It's not fading. Is there some other view setting I've accidentally turned on?

Aha! Thanks! It was a placed PDF, the vector stuff wasn't dimming, but the bitmap stuff was. I reimported as a PNG.

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Adobe illustrator cc template layer not working...image not dimming to 50% when template is selected

Not sure why this is occurring but in the past whenever I chose to make a layer a template, that layer was always dimmed 50%.
Now, it no longer does that. I can't get the template layer to dim despite double clicking and verifying that 50% dim is checked along with the template box.
Did something change in the CC version?

Are you sure you have an image on that layer?
Images are dimmed, but vector is not.
If you want to dim vector artwork, select it on that layer and choose Effect > Rasterize.
It's an effect so you can always undo it.

Why use template layer

When it comes to tracing an image manually, what's the use of using a 'template layer'. I'm used to just using a normal layer, placing the image, locking the layer and setting it to a 50% dim. Placing an image on a template layer basically does the exact same thing, so what's the point, besides not having to click 'lock' and '50% dim' on the layer? Now if a 'template layer' would always shine trough anything drawn on normal layers above it (like the top layers would have 80% transparency so that I can see more of what I'm tracing), it would be useful. But now it only saves me two boxes to click (lock / 50% dim) on a normal layer. Hardly a time saver.

"A template layer is always non-printing"
I know, but what's the point of keeping a non-printing layer. If it only builds up file size? When I'm done with a 'normal' layer, having traced it, I delete it anyway.
It's indeed a useless feature. Starting off locked. The dim feature could indeed also use some improvement, dimming only bitmap images.
I could (and do) use a normal layer, placing the trace image (bitmap) on it, locking and dimming it and trace upon it on a top normal layer. I guess I also could use a (again) normal layer, place bitmap/vector art on it, set it's transparancy to about 75% and lock it. Then trace it by adding a normal layer below it so the locked semi-transparent layer above it would keep shining through. Or something like that.
The best thing would be if a 'template layer' would mean a 75% reverse transparent layer. By reverse I mean that it shines through any layers above it instead that it covers layers below it like normal semi transparent layers. And thus also being able to place vector and bitmap images in such a layer which keeps shining through top layers. That's how I would see 'templates'. I hope adobe will pick up on that.

Script to create a template layer & then add a layer? Possible?

Hello, I am just starting to learn javascript and would like to know if it's possible to do the following:
Open multiple .tiff or .jpg files into illustrator
On each file's layer 1, template = yes (it's a check box) and click OK
Add new layer 2, click OK
Save file
Close file
I tried creating an action to do this, but it does not work. I am doing some illustrator and photoshop work which has quite a lot of repetitive tasks & I know a script would be a huge timesaver. This is just one of several scripts that I'd like to learn how to write. Thanks very much for reading this post and for your help. Best, Nancy

That's odd. According to the JS Object Model Viewer, you can change about everything in the standard Layer Option dialog using a script (print, preview, locked, visible, and even "dimPlacedImages") but not ... "template".

XCode Template Layer

Here is the reason for what I was referring to about xCode Templates being built from a common Core Data database.
Right now, xcode is developed from the point of view of the computer engineer. Even though the editor is extremely nice and user-friendly, and the core data interface is great, and the interface builder is great for users, the entire package is difficult for most people because in order to use it, you have to be able to frame your mind around the differences that are distinguished by the needs of the computer itself.
For example, the ability to create variables instantly for use only within an instance is best handled by instance variables while if a variable MUST be readable/writable to other classes, then it at least must be a declared property. But these differences are based on the engineering, and for most users, if every variable could have the ability to be written to or read, it would be easier to design a class. So also for p-lists, which have their use under certain limitations, and also CoreData which might be more difficult than other kinds of variables to access in some cases, but not others.
So, much of the design of xcode depends on the differentiation demanded by the computer itself, (and met by the solutions of the engineers). But the interface to xCode need not depend on those demands. Template building can consume any amount of time (practically), and the parts that go into xCode can be entered through any sort of interface or data base. It is a missing layer that could connect the average user with xCode. To complete the link, the template files being exported into xCode would still require linking of views to the template-generated IBOutlets and actions, and would still require coding and inspecting the files for errors detected in the xCode editor. Of course, it would be great if a TemplateMaker could update its files and databases with changes made in the xCode editors, but that is beyond my capability (and also not necessary).
So, anyway, the main reason for the need for an xCode interface is that the xCode format for data, linking and variables is based on the engineering requirements, but a TemplateMaker need not be based on such requirements.

...make xCode usable to the way a non-developer doesn't know how to use it.
That one is going in my quote collection.

Dim function in template layers

After creating a template layer and making sure 'dim 50% was selected' no dimming occured in the placed template image. How do you get this function to be active ni CS 6? It always worked in CS5. I have searched the help files and groups and found no documentation on this. Thanks for any assistance.

You can also try selecting "Link" checkbox while placing as a template layer, as shown below:
Image placed with Link option checked, will be placed as dim.

Can you set a layer to "Template" through script?

Hi there,
     I am creating a script to batch export multiple artboards as SVG, and setting a layer to "Template" will keep my unwanted paths from exporting. I am using Illustrator version 17.1.9(64bit)
Is there a way to set a layer to "template" through script?
Thanks!
Scott

You are correct on this, if I create a template Action let say called "template layer" I can call that with app.doScript("template layer", "folder"). After testing it does work... on my client where I have the Action, but I have a few other artist who will need to run this script.
EXAMPLE:
for (var i = 0; i < app.activeDocument.layers.length; i++)
    app.activeDocument.activeLayer = app.activeDocument.layers[i] ;
    if(app.activeDocument.layers[i].visible == false){
        app.doScript ("template layer", "NI");
The only other solution I can think of is putting all non-exportable objects on a layer, and call that layer "nonExport" and select all objects on this layer delete them, then export, then undo this action ... ewwww... sounds messy.
Cheers,
Scott

Non-printing advisory text/layer for templates

I'm trying to set up a template in illustrator that can be used by co-workers. Rather than having a separate document containing tips on how best to use the template (which of course, no-one will read) I thought it might be better to include info in the template itself. It would be a chore if this advisory info had to be deleted each time however. Does anyone know of a good method for being able to leave text or layers that I might be able to lock and thus couldn't be ignored by people using the doc, but importantly, would not be shown in the final result when placed in InDesign? The ideal result would not include having to specify lots of import options in InDesign for each file as there could be hundreds of these things to place!
I can't imagine that I have a unique situation here in wanting to do something like this.
I'm using CS5.

i thought you had the answer in your title for a minute there. but yeah, make a template layer with that info on it. double click on the layer and check 'template'

Identifying which Layer is a template from Printing Company?

I've taken over a graphic design position, and am having a it of trouble with something simple. For a 28 page catalog, the printing company has told me that my predecessor's uploaded files (PDF's exported from .indd) contains their (the printing company's) template guidelines (rules for bleed, trim etc.). It looks like the standard procedure before I took over was to download the rule/guideline template from the company and simply apply it on our own InDesign file as a layer. They have told me that one of the layers in my InDesign file still contains the template guidelines, which show when printing. My predecessor thinks that the culprit layer is in the Master page, and while the two layers on the Master are there (one titled "Rule Border" one titled "Mask-1") one is a small blank box (moveable) and the other is a large (page size, locked) blank box. When I hide these layers or deselect the "Print Layer" or "Show Layer" options, artwork/content is deleted from multiple pages. Is there any way to identify which layer is which, or to view the properties/contents of each individual layer (specifically these blank boxes on the Master page)? OR is there a better solution? PLEASE HELP

Often when printing companies have a template for people to download it is usually not an InDesign template file.
Is is often a graphic; an EPS, PDF,Tif, or Jpg that can be placed on a layer to make sure elements are placed correctly.
Since this is probably one of these, try looking in the Links Manager for something with an unusual name that might be the template.
The Links Manager can tell you on which page it resides.
If you select the linked file in the list and click the page # to the right or the Go to Link icon at the bottom (Page icon with an arrow) it will go directly to the page and the item will be selected.
We don't know how it was originally placed, it might not even be on a Master Page. It might have been placed on Document pages, maybe even more than once.
Once you have determined where it is, the quickest way to hide this is to create a completely new layer and call it something like "Template - HIDE THIS!"
Drag the selected template image (and only the template image) to the new layer in the layers panel. As Joel Cherney has show above. the highlighted item on the page will have a colored dot to the right in the layer.
Drag this dot to the Template layer and the linked item will be moved there. You can then hide or delete the template layer.
It is also a good idea to LOCK any template layer since locking it will prevent you from accidently placing or moving elements onto this template layer!

Need to create stupid proof templates for non-designers

Ok folks, I'm new to this forum having come across it in search of a solution to my problem.
I need to create illustrator template files (.ai not .ait) that customers can download and use to create their own artwork for print. I have to create them in every printable paper format from business cards to A3 posters, folding, non-folding yada yada.
Now, previously, we used an .ai file with a guide layer we created. This guide layer had all relevant info, was named accordingly. It was set not to print and locked. As I tend to use print to file, distiller and all, this has always been perfectly adequate to create my pdfs. Of course, this doesn't work the same way when saving a pdf, which is what most people do. However, customers who wish to download the templates are having some difficulty with the concept of 'make sure you delete the guide layer before saving your pdf'.
For the most part, the customers using these files are not illustrator literate. Even though there are clear instructions to 'delete' the guide layer when saving the needed pdfs, they are failing to do so. This means when the .ai (with the non printable layer) is saved to pdf, the guide layer as a hidden object is saved within the pdf. Upon printing at our printing facilities, the guide layer has been printed with disasterous results.
A possible solution we came up with was to use the ruler guides to create the guide layer. For this solution to work though, I need to be able to use different colours for different guides within the same document. Which we can't. We can only change all the guide colours and they are all the same colour.
Another idea would be to outline text indicating various printable and non-printable areas and making them into guides via View>guides>make guides, which works to an extent but looks messy, especially when viewing the full page and again, isn't particularly distinctive, leading back to having different guides in different colours.
I've come across another possible solution involving template layers. Viewing the resulting pdf seems fine and in all purposes it does what we need, except for when reopening the saved (not printed) pdf back in illustrator, the template layer is still there and I need it gone. The same way it would be if the .ai were printed to postscript and sent through distiller.
My ideal solution would be to have to ability to have the different coloured ruler guides in place throughout my document, but as I previously stated, all guides have to be the same colour and that's useless in this instance.
So, has anyone got any bright ideas. Coincidentally I need to create the same templates for both psd and indesign but I'll cross that bridge when I've figured this out.

Hey Mike, thanks for the response.
1. Not a chance, if, even when the process is described in great detail in an info pdf, available as info on the website (with screenshot instructions) and mentioned in the .ai file itself, they aren't even deleting the guide layer, then turning off 'Preserve illustrator editing capabilities' is kind of a stretch. Like I said, the folks these templates are to be designed for are not illustrator literate for the most part.
2. Not sure if this would work. I'd have to look into it.
3. Beyond my capabilities. I'll let you know if number 2 works.
One possible solution I've come up with uses the idea of a template layer always on top, with 'DELETE THIS LAYER' and screenshot of layers pallette and clear little red arrows etc. If I can the template layer to always remain on top, with their artwork layer underneath, they would have to toggle hide/unhide to view their artwork, and the reminder to remove the guide layer would be pretty much in their face. That's not a guarantee either though.
Personally, I think what I've been asked to achieve is a pretty hard task and honestly, I'm thinking there are no failsafe options.

Passing query template name to BLS SQL action in the link editor

I want to have one transaction that uses the SQL query action, but which query template it uses will be dependent on some user input. I am having trouble passing the query name. I'm using the full file path in xml format (i.e. "c://<folder1>//<folder2>//<folderN>//"&PassedFileName&".xml", but with backslashes instead of forward slashes). I got an error around the connector, so I set that too. Then I got an error around mode, so I set it to "FixedQuery". Now I'm getting, "The Query expression was not set with the Query parameter".
There are only 3-5 possible queries that will be used, so I'd rather build SQL queries and just pass the transaction the name of the query, as opposed to passing the full text of the query each time.
Thanks,
Carrie
Edited by: Carrie Schimizzi on May 9, 2008 6:38 PM
Edited by: Carrie Schimizzi on May 9, 2008 6:39 PM
Edited by: Carrie Schimizzi on May 9, 2008 6:40 PM

Carrie,
If you haven't already done so, configure your master BLS transaction with a proper representative runtime variation, which will make the whole process simpler to create and troubleshoot. Quite often when people try to use the dynamic capabilities of MII, they end up getting confused because of user over-complication. In your SQLQuery action block make sure you configure it to a valid template that would be one that the user would provide as an input (don't forget to allow the generation of sample results for making any subsequent trx efforts easier). Then look in the link editor and you should see this string value for the query template link if you hover over the corresponding blue T icon. This will show you the format you need to provide from your Transaction input property (which should also have a valid default value assigned so you can test the transaction by itself, without needing to initially rely on the Xacute Query template layer.
Regards,
Jeremy

Place/Import file to visible Layer

I have been working on a script to place a psd file onto only one visible layer (document has multiple hidden layers).
This java code has worked so far:
var doc = app.activeDocument;
var onFile = File("C:/Users/Desktop/Desktop/ExportedArtboard-01.psd");
var mydoc = doc.placedItems.add();
mydoc.file = onFile;
mydoc.embed();
however this works with only the top layer visible (eye turned on in Ai). if top most layer isn't visible i get "target layer cannot be modified" error.
I've searched a lot in the forums and cant seem to figure this last code out if some can please help me make the code import the psd file to a layer that is currently visible (closests to top layer) would be great.
For instance say i have 1,2,3 layers. layer 1 (top most) and 3 (bottom most) would be hidden, layer 2 (middle layer) would be visible and then running the script would place the psd file on to layer 2.
Thank you!!!

A simple forward looking loop testing for both properties should find you the first useable unknown layer if there is one…
#target illustrator
var doc = app.activeDocument;
var psdFile = File( Folder.desktop + '/Testing.psd' );
var count = doc.layers.length;
for ( var i = 0; i < count; i++ ) {
          if ( ! doc.layers[i].locked && doc.layers[i].visible ) {
                    doc.activeLayer = doc.layers[i];
                    var myPsd = doc.layers[i].placedItems.add();
                    myPsd.file = psdFile;
                    myPsd.embed();
                    break;
You could add an else to this to warn if there was none…

Numbers Template Won't Open

Hey All -
I have a Numbers (iWork09) template that will no longer open after my upgrade to Lion (actually three variations of the same template). In addition, all documents that had been created from those templates no longer open either, so I'm fairly confident the actual template file isn't the culprit.
When I open the template (or one of the documents derived from that template), either Numbers freezes and I have to force quit, or the open progress bar stops mid through opening - and I have to force quit. Sometimes the progress bar will complete, but the document still won't open, allowing me to continue to work in Numbers, just not on that document.
I have no idea which way to go next to trouble shoot this problem.
I've uploaded the file to my dropbox to see if someone else can replicate the problem and offer a solution.
Suggestions?
Thanks!

As you may see below, no problem here.
(1) as you upgraded to Lion, it would be a good idea to update your profile which claims (10.5.1)
(2) I don't know how you installed Lion.
As I do for every major upgrade, I installed on a blank HD.
(3) May you try to run the app from an other user account ?
I know that you will have to copy the custom template to this account but it's not too complicated (you are not forced to copy it in Templates > My Templates. Copy it to the Desktop would be sufficient)
Doing that would tell us if we must search the culprit in your original account or in the huge set of files shared by every accounts.
(4) You wrote "I have a Numbers (iWork09) template". Is it Numbers as component of the iWork package as it was delivered since january 2009 or is it Numbers bought as a single apple from Mac App Store ?
If it’s a component of the package, may you check that the set of shared files is available on your system ?
On your system, Bibliothèque may be spelled Library
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) dimanche 30 octobre 2011 11:27:58
iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 4 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.2
My iDisk is : <http://public.me.com/koenigyvan>
Please : Search for questions similar to your own before submitting them to the community

Eyedropper selecting outline color not underneath layer

I'm attempting to do a gradient mesh on an apple. I'm stuck when filling the mesh with the eyedropper tool.
What i do is use the direct selection tool and click an anchor and then click the eyedropper tool on that anchor point What is happening is the the outline color is being selected. So i found out Illustrator CS6 you have to hold shift while clicking the eyedropper. I tried that and still can't get the color of the underneath layer, the fill color stays white? Here is pic:
As you can see in the navigator window, the shade of red is that of the outline and not the apple underneath the outline. I tried shift+eyedropper and white is the only color that get's sampled. What am i doing wrong?

Yes the fill is focused. Here is the eyedropper settings. I tried again and it either samples the outline color or the smart guide color(green) It should sample the template layer underneath(apple).

B&W Adjustment Layer Problem in CS4

I am fairly proficient at PS and have used B&W adjustment layers often to create great black and whites. One of the best features of the B&W adj. layers is the "on-image" color adjustments (the hand with the left/right arrows in the upper left cornet of the adj panel which allows you to drag in the image to adjust the grayscale value of any color in the image). This has worked great until recently.
All of sudden, my B&W adj layer started acting strangly. The on-image slider does not activate an eye dropper icon and all the sliders are always showing specific numbers. When I try to manually slide a color slider, it changes the image as if the slider was moved...but the number in the slider box never changes. Very weird. The same "on-image" function is also available on a curves adjustment layer, and it works just fine.
Has anyone ever experienced their B&W adjustment layers to exhibit this behavior before?
I am running CS4 11.0.2, Win XP. I can think of nothing that has changed in my system lately.
Thanks for any insight.
-Jim

Thanks, I might try that, but the B&W adjustment layer isn't really a "tool" and the on-image picker is unique to that panel - so I'm not sure what resetting a tool preference (or all tool preferences for that matter) would do.
However, I may try it anyway if I continue to not find a solution.
Thanks,
-Jim

Dimmed Template Layer isn't dimming

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