How to use Shape Group #s instead of layer index in an Expression

[Dan Ebberts]

I think if you replace the third line with this you’ll be close:

val = propInitialSize -(5*(thisProperty.propertyGroup(2).propertyIndex*Scalar));

Dan

[Paul Roper]

Coincidentally, I was wracking my brain with a very similar problem yesterday…and hoping to find a solution to it today.

(continuing a discussion from over a year ago….!!)
…but, is there a way to get the number of “this group”?

I want to do this so I can access the previous group (in the same way I’d use “index-1” to access the previous layer).

So to get the previous group’s rectangle 1’s position, it would be something like:

TargetGroup = thisGroup-1;
content(TargetGroup).content("Rectangle Path 1").position

….thisGroup being a magical made-up function that gets the current group’s number or name.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I’ve created an expression to get a group’s name and increase its last digit by 1:

theOne="Group "+2;
thisGroup=thisComp.layer("Shape Layer 1").content(theOne).name;
thisNumber=parseInt(thisGroup.substr(-1));
theOne=thisGroup.substr(0,thisGroup.length-1)+(thisNumber+2)
but without being able to get the current group’s number, it’s not much use. I’m going round in circles!

– Paul

[Dan Ebberts]

When you say “group”, do you mean property group, or shape layer group?
It would help to see a picture of what you’re trying to do. In any case, propertyGroup() is pretty much the only tool you have to move up the hierarchy. It does sound like what you want to do is possible, I’m just not sure what that is.

Dan

[Paul Roper]

Hi Dan,

I’ve made a simple example here:

But instead of Group 2’s rectangle position being:
content("Group 1").content("Rectangle Path 1").position+[0,100]
I’d like it to be something like:
content(THISGROUP-1).content("Rectangle Path 1").position+[0,100]
…so I can create a lot of these groups and they’ll each reference the group above (and not using the Repeater – I need to add a different fill to each one). In the project I needed this for, I’ve ended up making a lot of layers, achieving the same result (but less elegantly) having each layer reference the position of the “index-1” rectangle. It works, but I’m not a fan of unwieldy multi-layer comps when it can probably be done more concisely with a few lines of an expression.

– Paul

[Dan Ebberts]

It’s tricky and very dependent on how you have your groups set up, but in your example, something like this should work:

content (“Group ” + (parseInt(thisProperty.propertyGroup(3).name.split(” “)[1],10) – 1)).content(“Rectangle Path 1”).position+[0,100]

Dan

[Paul Roper]

I can’t find the “SOLUTION!” thing in this thread…because that is, indeed, the solution!*

The “thisProperty” is the key.

THANK YOU!

– Paul

*Aha! It’s probably because I didn’t start this thread.

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Bleh! I’m not getting it. 🙁

Me thinks there should be a groupIndex (or thisGroup) thingy that works analogously to index.

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[Vincent Landrieu]

Hi,

Can you please tell me what is the “3” in this expression ?
content (“Group ” + (parseInt(thisProperty.propertyGroup(3).name.split(” “)[1],10) – 1)).content(“Rectangle Path 1”).position+[0,100]

So there isn’t any other way to get a Shape Group Index other than extracting it from the Shape Group name string?

Thanks!

[Dan Ebberts]

The 3 takes you up 3 property group levels from the target property (the property with the expression, in this case). Note that (especially with shape layers) not all levels are necessarily visible in the UI. You can use propertyIndex to get a property or property group’s index within its parent group.

Dan

[Ranveer Singh]

Hey man,

I know its been 7 year just in case you still don’t know how to do this or if someone is in need of it (like me) here is the solution.

All you have to do is to replace the “Group 1” with “thisProperty.propertyGroup(1).propertyGroup(1).propertyIndex+1”

If you want to understand how it works her is the link: https://youtu.be/xgUNncvKXY8

content(thisProperty.propertyGroup(1).propertyGroup(1).propertyIndex+1).content("Rectangle Path 1").position+[0,100]

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