Selection to Artboards

Ai Toolbox can make artboards based on the currently selected elements in Adobe Illustrator.

To start, select the objects and click Object → Convert Selection to Artboards item in the Illustrator menu.

Artboards Creation Options

Ai Toolbox window will pop up, showing the artboard creation settings:

The top most option is Group overlapping elements and it defines what to do with the overlapping elements. If enabled, Ai Toolbox will put all the partially or completely overlapped elements into a single artboard. If disabled, each element will get its own separate artboard. It is probably a good idea to keep it enabled most of the time.

The Name artboards after selected elements option speaks for itself. If enabled, the artboards will be named after the processed elements, otherwise the default artboard names will be used. Note that if elements are grouped (using the option above) the artboard will be named after one of the elements, most likely the biggest one.

Next goes Remove existing artboards which tells Ai Toolbox to only leave the newly created artboards. This affects all the artboards in the project, not only the current one, so use with caution. You can always undo the changes made by the plugin using Edit → Undo in the menu.

Finally, the Padding section lets you specify the amount of extra space added around the selected elements’ boundaries when the artboards are created.

Creating Artboards

That’s pretty much it. Ai Toolbox will update the Illustrator document while you make the changes, so once everything looks right, simply click the Commit button to commit the changes and return to Illustrator.

More Ai Toolbox Tutorials

Installation

• Installation — how to install the plugin;
• License Activation — how to activate the plugin with a license key.

Renaming and Creating Elements

• Bulk Rename in Illustrator — rename multiple elements at once;
• Create Artboards from Selection — make artboards from selected elements.

Selection Operations

• Selecting Paths by Name — bulk selection by name in Illustrator;
• Select → Same → Font — selecting objects with the same font in Illustrator.

Text Operations

• Merging Texts in Illustrator — combine text elements, keeping lines intact;
• Dynamic Texts — add dynamic information to text elements in Illustrator.

Files Operations

• Collect Resources — package multiple files at once, including the nested ones.

Conical Labels

• Conical Label from Selection — making the label from the selected artwork;
• Conical Label from Artboard — making the label from the artboard content.

Color Bars

• Making Color Bars — how to make color bars in Illustrator in a few clicks;
• Color Bar Appearance — customizing color bars to display the data you need;
• Color Patches — color bars that display the inks you want;
• Reusing Color Bars — how to copy color bars to another project.

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