VectorDoc

VectorDoc (formerly FixIt) heals the files customers send you. Tick the fixes you want, select the artwork, and “let the doctor fix it”: open paths joined and closed, stray points and empty text gone, duplicate and hidden objects removed, pointless clipping masks cleared, all without changing how the artwork looks.

See it in the shop · Version 2.0.2 · Needs PowerScripts 3.8.42 or later

If you own FixIt, you have VectorDoc: same script, new name.

Open the PowerScripts panel (Window > Extensions > PowerScripts) and choose VectorDoc from the Tools scripts. The script has six tabs: Check-up, Images, Color, Clipping Paths, Straighten and Rasterize.

1. Open the supplied file and select the artwork.
2. On Check-up, leave the ticked fixes as they are (or tick the ones you want).
3. Press Let the doctor fix it.

A summary tells you what was fixed. Undo puts it all back.

Tick the fixes, select the artwork, press Let the doctor fix it. Hover over any option in the panel for a short explanation.

• Hidden objects: objects hidden with Object > Hide or the eye in the Layers panel, inside the selected groups.
• Invisible paths: paths with no fill and no stroke. Clipping paths are always kept.
• Stray points and empty text: single-point paths, and text frames with no text.
• Duplicate paths stacked on top of each other: the same shape with the same fill and stroke, in the same layer or group. The top one stays. No more doubled cuts on a cutter.

• Merge doubled points: points on (almost) the same spot become one.
• Join open paths whose ends touch: open paths in the same layer or group whose ends meet become one path.
• Join Reasonably: join ends closer than: join the nearest free ends up to this distance apart, with a straight line.
• Close open paths: close Filled paths only, or All open paths.
• Recombine fills and outlines: a fill-only shape with an outline-only copy right above it becomes one shape with both. Left alone if the outline is under its fill, so the artwork still looks the same.
• Points count as the same within: how close points or ends must be to count as touching.

• Remove artwork hidden outside its clipping mask: artwork completely outside its mask can never show, so it's deleted.
• Remove page-size clipping masks (PDF imports): the page-size masks PDF imports add, removed when nothing sticks out of them.
• Remove unnecessary clipping masks: a mask with nothing sticking out of it changes nothing, so it's removed. Quick checks one level; Deep looks inside groups too.
  • Only rectangular masks: only remove rectangular masks, like the ones exports and imports add.
  • Ungroup what was inside: ungroup the contents once the mask is gone.
  • Ungroup all groups inside: ungroup everything inside too.
  • Tolerance: how close to the mask's edge a shape can be and still count as fully inside. Raise it a little if some unnecessary masks are left.

On a big selection a Stop button shows. Stopping tells you what was done so far.

• Restore image size: for embedded images, take out rotation and skew (flips are kept), and either go Back to 100% (the image's own size) or Remove distortion, keep the size.

• Remove unused Colors: delete swatches nothing uses, and empty colour groups.

• Clip selected Shapes: clip each selected shape, by an Offset round it (a minus number trims into it) or to a Fixed Size (Clip Width and Clip Height).
• Use visual size including stroke width: measure shapes including their strokes.

1. Select two anchor points that should be level (or draw a line along something that should be level).
2. Press Calculate Angle.
3. Select the shape and press Rotate.

Turn tricky artwork (effects, transparency, heavy masks, slow PDF imports) into a clean image right where it is. Illustrator's own Rasterize includes everything hidden inside a clipping mask, giving a big image full of white. VectorDoc can keep the mask and rasterize only what shows.

• Resolution, Color (Color, Bitmap or Grayscale), Anti Aliasing, Background color: the image settings.
• Expand/Contract: make the image a little bigger than the shape (a minus number crops it). A small expand hides edge pixels under a clipping mask.
• Transparency, Preserve Spot Colors, Convert text to outlines before rasterization, Include layer attributes like opacity and blend mode.
• Raster each shape individually: one image per selected shape, in place.
• Rasterize Clipping Mask Contents and Preserve Mask: rasterize only what's inside the mask, and keep the mask for a clean edge.
• Rasterize: does it.
• Reduce Clipped Contents: a clean-up for imported CorelDRAW files with broken clipping paths: open clipping paths are removed (the artwork stays), and images inside closed ones are resampled at the set resolution.

1. Open the PDF and select everything.
2. On Check-up, tick Duplicate paths, Stray points and empty text, Join open paths whose ends touch, Close open paths: All open paths and Remove page-size clipping masks.
3. Press Let the doctor fix it and check the summary.

• Save your favourite set of fixes as a preset (see Using Presets), for example “Cutter clean-up”.
• Use Selector to find what's left: open paths, stray points or tiny shapes.

• Every fix is chosen to leave the artwork looking the same. Undo (Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z) puts everything back.
• With nothing selected, the buttons say so.

• 2.0.2
  • New: a long Clean Up can be stopped: it says what was done before it stopped.
  • Improved: Clean Up is about twice as fast on big selections.
  • Fixed: Clean Up finds duplicates and fill + outline pairs that sat a hair apart.
  • Fixed: Reduce Clipped Contents no longer deletes artwork clipped by an open path.
  • Improved: general bug fixes, reliability and speed.
• 2.0.1: Fixed: the Console window no longer opens while VectorDoc works.
• 2.0.0
  • New: Fixit is now VectorDoc, same script, new name.
  • New: Check-up: tick the fixes you want, select your artwork and let the doctor fix it in one go.
  • New: join open paths whose ends touch, and Join Reasonably to join ends that are close together.
  • New: merge doubled points, remove stray points and empty text, remove hidden objects and invisible paths.
  • New: remove duplicate paths stacked on top of each other.
  • New: remove page-size clipping masks left by PDF imports.
  • Improved: removing unnecessary clipping masks is much faster, with Quick and Deep checks.
  • Improved: recombining fills and outlines checks the outline sits right above its fill, so the artwork looks the same.
  • New: Restore image size can keep the size and only take out the distortion.
  • Fixed: buttons now say when nothing is selected.
• Older changes: PowerScripts Release Notes