[JS CS3] Touching Objects

Question

Hi
Is there a way to obtain all objects who are touching a certain frame on a page?
Thanks for answers
Stefan Huwiler

Answer 1

Stefan Huwiler wrote:
I was thinking about such a way too, but was interested if there is maybe another way.
I thought InDesign internally knows what objects are overlapping or upon another.
Thanks für the answers.
It's not so simple. The 'bounds' property deals with bounding box disregarding the inner path of the object (polygons, ovals, rotated or sheared frames).
1) If 2 bounding box have no intersection, you are sure that the 2 underlying objects don't intersect.
but
2) If 2 bounding box intersect, you are not sure that the 2 underlying objects intersect.
In a recent project I had to check for touching polygons.
The 'bounds' approach provides a quick diagnostic when the conclusion is "no intersection":
/*bool*/ Polygon.prototype.collideBounds = function(/*Polygon*/ _poly)
// Ret. TRUE if the bounding boxes intersect, else return FALSE
// quick method, but TRUE does not mean the shapes actually intersect
var b = this.visibleBounds;
var _b = _poly.visibleBounds;
return( !((b[0]>_b[2]) || (b[2]<_b[0]) || (b[1]>_b[3]) || (b[3]<_b[1])) );
When p1.collideBounds(p2) is TRUE, I need to invoke another method to refine the test. Then I use the intersectPath method, which is dramatically slower:
/*bool*/ Polygon.prototype.collideShapes = function(/*Polygon*/ _poly)
// Ret. TRUE if the shapes intersect
// slow method
try     {
     this.intersectPath(_poly);
     app.activeDocument.undo();
     return(true);
catch(ex)
     return(false);
As shown above, the point is that p1.intersectPath(p2) throws an error when the 2 shapes don't intersect.
Hope it could help you.
@+
Marc