Working with Illustrator and CorelDRAW

Packaging artwork is made in Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW, on top of the dieline ParametrIQ CAD makes. Four things keep the two in step without plugins: the design travels inside the dieline PDF, the PDF can update itself each time you save the drawing, artwork that comes back can be checked against the dieline, and the Designer Link lets scripts in Illustrator and CorelDRAW change the drawing's sizes and place its dieline.

The design inside the file

The print-ready dieline PDF, and PDF and PDF-compatible Illustrator files exported from the drawing, carry the drawing itself (its .piq text, still parametric) unless Carry the design inside is switched off. It goes in twice: as an attachment (box.piq, listed in Acrobat's Attachments) and in the file's XMP metadata (piq:Design), which programs that rewrite the PDF are likelier to keep.

Open such a file with File › Open… (choose PDF and Illustrator files with their design) and the design opens as a new, unsaved drawing named after it; a file without one says so, and File › Import brings in its lines instead. A file saved again by the designer keeps the design if their program kept the attachment or the metadata: Acrobat does; check with your own version of Illustrator or CorelDRAW before relying on it.

A dieline that keeps up

When you export a dieline PDF, tick Update it each time the drawing is saved. The drawing remembers the PDF (in its file, so it travels with it) and writes it again, with the same options, every time you save. The PDF is written to a temporary file first and then put in place, so a program watching it never reads half a file.

In Illustrator, place the PDF with File › Place… and Link ticked: when you change the box and save the drawing, Illustrator's Links panel marks the dieline as modified, and Update Link brings in the new one. CorelDRAW keeps no such link to a PDF: import it again, or use the macro below, which replaces it on its layer. Export to the same file with the box unticked to stop updating it.

Checking artwork

Production › Check Artwork… reads artwork that has come back from the designer (a PDF, a PDF-compatible Illustrator file or an EPS) and checks it against its dieline, found by its spot colours or layers (Dieline, CutContour, Thru-cut, Crease, Fold …). The findings are drawn over the dieline, numbered, and listed (problems first); they are written in the Interactive window too. The bleed and safe area are those of the drawing's linked dieline PDF, or 3 mm (1/8 in).

Check	What it looks for
Bleed	Artwork that reaches the cut but stops short of the bleed. Only edges with artwork at them need bleed: a white margin needs none.
Safe area	Text across the cut line, or inside the blank but nearer the cut than the safe area.
Creases	Text that runs over a crease.
Dieline colours	Artwork in the dieline's spot colours, a dieline in a process colour (it would print), dieline lines that don't overprint.
Pictures	Placed pictures under 300 pixels to the inch (under 150 is a problem).
RGB	Artwork in RGB colours, which the printer converts to CMYK.
The dieline	Whether the artwork's dieline is still the drawing's: by the design the file carries (which variables changed), else by its size.

The cut lines are read as they print, on a fine grid, so a dieline drawn as separate lines that meet, with slots, hand holes and flaps, is one blank. The free Dieline Check page on the website runs the same artwork check on PDF, Illustrator and EPS uploads.

Designer Link

Production › Designer Link… lets Illustrator and CorelDRAW on the same computer work with the drawing open in ParametrIQ CAD. Tick Let Illustrator and CorelDRAW reach this drawing and choose OK; it stays on until you untick it. Only programs on this computer can reach it (port 5197 unless you change it); web pages and other computers can't. The scripts are in the app's Extensions/DesignerLink folder: Open the Scripts' Folder shows it.

Illustrator

Run PiQ Dieline.jsx with File › Scripts › Other Script… (or copy it into Illustrator's Scripts folder to have it in the menu). It lists the drawing's labelled variables to change, the bleed and the safe area, then:

Place / Update Dieline sets the values you changed in ParametrIQ CAD (one step to undo there), writes the dieline PDF beside the document and places it, linked, on a locked layer PiQ Dieline at the top, centred on the artboard. Run again, it updates that dieline where it is.
Check Artwork sends the saved document (an Illustrator file with Create PDF Compatible File on, or a PDF) to ParametrIQ CAD and lists what the artwork check finds.

CorelDRAW

Import PiQDieline.bas once: Tools › Scripts › Script Editor, right-click GlobalMacros, Import File…. Then run its macros from Tools › Scripts › Run Script:

PlaceDieline asks whether to change the drawing's sizes (each labelled variable in turn; leave one as it is to keep it), then imports the dieline PDF onto a locked layer PiQ Dieline, replacing the one there.
CheckArtwork publishes the document to PDF and shows what the artwork check finds.

Its messages come from ParametrIQ CAD, in the language ParametrIQ CAD runs in.

For your own scripts

The link is a small HTTP service at http://localhost:5197. Every request must carry the header X-PiQ-Link: 1; one from a web page (with an Origin header) is refused. Add ?format=text for tab-separated lines rather than JSON.

Request	What it does
`GET /api/status`	The program, and the open drawing's name.
`GET /api/drawing`	The drawing's name, units and labelled variables (name, label, kind, value, choices).
`POST /api/variables`	Sets labelled variables: a JSON object (`{"L": 320}`) or `name=value` lines. Answers as `/api/drawing`.
`GET /api/dieline.pdf`	The dieline PDF, carrying the design; `bleed`, `safe` (drawing units), `artwork`, `cut` and `crease` change it.
`POST /api/check`	Checks the artwork sent (PDF, Illustrator, EPS) against the drawing; `bleed` and `safe` as above.
`GET /api/strings`	The scripts' text, in ParametrIQ CAD's language.