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A Script to access Sourcetext
Okay, I was doing OK w/ expressions but for some reason scripts have me a bit messed up…
I’m trying to write a script that accesses:
-a specific comp,
-then a specific text layers character length
-then put this information somewhere else (eg: display this on another text layer, set as x-position of a solid…)So if a string had 100 characters, running the script would tell you it had 100 characters in another textlayer, or it could set the position of a solid layer…I know how to do it w/ expressions, but the problem is that the user of the AE file will want to ‘tweak’ the information after – so I don’t want the information continually updated – they can just run the script once and have get a ‘hint’ of the information and tweak afterwards if they want…
This question is more about basic scripting, accessing specific values (all the example scripts can do fancy things like find a certain string in *all* the text layers of a file, but how do I make it just access a specific comp, specific layer)?
Sorry if I’m confusing, it’s just I thought the transition to scripts would be easier….
-echo
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3 Replies
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actually, let me reduce my thought more…
okay, lets say I have a comp called Bongle and a layer called Dongle…how would I access the sourcetext property of that layer in a project?
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I haven’t tested this stuff, so there may be errors, but basically it’s like this. Finding a specific comp in the project window is kind of clunky, but you can do it like this:
var compName = “xxxx”; //comp name goes here
var myProject = app.project;
var n = myProject.numItems;
var foundIt = false;
var i;
for (i=1; i<=n; i++){ if (myProject.item(i).name == compName){ var myComp = myProject.item(i); break; } } Finding a layer in a comp is pretty much the way you do it in expressions: var layerName = "yyyy"; //layer name goes here var myLayer = myComp.layer(layerName); Getting the length of a layer's source text would look like this: var mySourceText = myLayer.text.sourceText; var mySourceTextLen = mySourceText.len; Hope that's helpful. Dan -
ah, I believe I understand…
very much appreciated.
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