I often have to create a lot of like items with variable text for laser engraving, a basic example is a rectangular tag with a serial number and corresponding barcode. The file that goes to the laser must be an AI8 or an svg (preferably both as some of our laser software works with one but not the other).
My general workflow is to create a csv file in conjunction with indesign’s data merge feature to export a pdf. I think open that pdf in adobe illustrator, use the “release to layers” feature to turn each group into its own layer (this is to overcome some unreliable grouping behavior with the laser software. Sometimes it reads groups fine, sometimes not, but this is a simple fix that consistently works).
Now the problem I encounter is, as in the above example, when there is more than one line of text per engraved object. It is a single group or text box in indesign, yet no matter what I’ve tried it always groups it by line in illustrator. So using the above example I then have to go through and manually group each serial number and barcode before issuing the release to layers command. This becomes very tedious very quickly and as our business grows I foresee one day where it simply becomes infeasible to do this manually. Is there any way that I may not be aware of to get indesign to preserve grouping? If the text were all outlined and made into a compound path that would solve it, but similarly I am unaware of a way to automate this and must then manually outline and compound everything in indesign which takes just as much work.
– I’ve tried exporting as eps and no go.
– Illustrator has a similar data merge like feature, however as best I can determine the issue with that is that it then exports each instance as its own separate file which would be even more work to manage.
Our laser software is rather primitive in comparison to the adobe suite, although it is the best software that currently exists unfortunately, so it seems more likely this could be tackled from the design end than the engraving end to me. Thanks for any help with this.
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