Parent Un-Partented Nulls – A Script I would love!

[Filip Vandueren]

This script should do it:

app.beginUndoGroup("Group-Parent selected Layers");
gAI = app.project.activeItem;
gSL = gAI.selectedLayers;
parentCandidates=[];
is3D = false;
// check which layers don't have a parent and store them in an array
for (i=0; i<gSL.length; i++) {
    l = gSL[i];
    if (l.parent==null) {
        parentCandidates.push(gSL[i]);
        // if any layers is 3D, the Null will need to be 3D too.
        if (l.threeDLayer) {
            is3D = true;
        }
    }
}
// if there are any, create a Null.
if (parentCandidates.length>0) {
    n = gAI.layers.addNull();
    n.threeDLayer = is3D;
    // calculate the average position of the layers
    avgPos=[0,0,0];
    for (i=0; i<parentCandidates.length; i++) {
        l=parentCandidates[i];
        avgPos+=l.position.value;
    }
    avgPos/=parentCandidates.length;
    n.position.setValue(avgPos);
    for (i=0; i<parentCandidates.length; i++) {
        l=parentCandidates[i];
        l.parent = n;
    }
}
app.endUndoGroup();

[Laurie Gibbs]

Hi Filip,

This is great! Thanks so much for making this. I have one question, is it possible for the null position to be the average of all the selected layers. It currently seems to create the average position of the unparented layers only.

Thanks so much.

[Filip Vandueren]

Not as straightforward as one would think, because Scripts can’t directly see the absolute position of a child (there is no toComp() method in extendscript).

[Laurie Gibbs]

Ahh, I did wonder if that may be an issue. Never mind. Thanks v much for making this script. I do love it.

[Laurie Gibbs]

Hi Filip.

Thanks again for making this script. I am using it a lot in my workflow. I was wondering if it would be easy to create a version where you can select a group of layers, then run the script and it will leave just the un-parented layers selected?

That would be ace.

Best regards,

Laurie

[Filip Vandueren]

Hi Laurie, this script should do just that:

app.beginUndoGroup("Deselect parented layers of current selection");
var sel = app.project.activeItem.selectedLayers;
for (var i=sel.length; i>0; i--) {
    var sl = sel[i-1];
    if (sl.parent!==null) {
        sl.selected=false;
    };
}
app.endUndoGroup();

[Laurie Gibbs]

You are amazing. Thank you very much!!