Assemblr help

The drawing

The product drawn above the card; the page follows when you let go. In Line-up, drag the end of the line round to turn the row (it snaps to 5°; hold Option for 1°) and out or in to set its size; hold Shift to only turn. Click one of the nine dots to choose where the product sits in its frame. Grid and Pins show bars for the space across and down, Mosaic a Rotation stepper for other packings, and Puzzle origin points to rest the images against. A locked image is drawn dashed.

Assemble

Shown while the selection holds placed images that are in no product. Assemble makes them one product, in the space they took up, laid out as a grid with automatic columns, in one undo step. The images move onto a layer named "Assemblr", and the product's frame, an empty rectangle round them that prints nothing, is the handle you move and resize it by. When Assemble cannot run, the line under it says why.

Arrangements

Line-up (one row with angle and perspective), Grid (rows and columns), Mosaic (scaled to fill the space), Pins (a bowling-pins formation) and Puzzle (tightly packed at equal area). Each lays the images out by their visible subject, and each keeps its own settings, so switching back finds them as you left them.

The product

Its name, the page it is on and how many images it holds. Products are named Product 1, Product 2 and so on; type a new name here and press Return to rename one.

Align images, Angle, Size, Scale, Bleed

Align images lines the images up on their top edges, middles or bottom edges. Angle turns the row, up to 90° either way; Size is how much of the space the row takes. Scale shrinks the whole arrangement inside its frame, and Bleed adds a margin round each picture's visible subject, as a share of its size. Each arrangement shows only what it uses: Grid its columns and rows (empty is automatic) and Space across and down, which overlap below 0; Mosaic and Puzzle a Breathing space; Pins a slider from Rack to Pyramid and Add row or Remove row. A box's chevron drops a slider down from it.

Add clipping path to alpha

Clips each picture to its cut-out, the outline of its transparency, so nothing outside the product shows.

Perspective

In Line-up and Pins: makes the far images smaller, as if the row went back into the page. 0 keeps every image the same size.

Re-fit

Lays the images out again with these settings. In Puzzle it nests them again round the images you placed by hand and the locked ones.

Reset

Puts the product back to this arrangement's automatic settings: equal sizes, hand rotation and shear cleared, locks kept in Puzzle and released in the other arrangements. Images removed from the layout stay out. One undo step.

Clear transformations

Shown once you have turned or scaled an image by hand. It sets those images upright, at an automatic size and crop, and lays them out again; the settings and locks stay. One undo step.

Swap order

Brings the other end of the row to the front, where the images overlap. In Grid it shows once a space is below 0, and chooses whether the upper or the lower rows sit on top.

Disassemble

Takes the product apart: its frame goes, and every image stays where it stands, on the Assemblr layer.

Disconnect

Stops Assemblr laying this product out, so your edits are left exactly as they are. Its controls dim until you Reconnect, which lays it out again with the images as they stand, sizes you set by hand kept; Reset reconnects it too.

Images

The product's images in their order, each tile its picture and file type. Drag a tile to reorder, or into another product's strip to move the image there. × removes an image from the layout: it leaves the page and its tile stays, dimmed; + on that tile puts it back at the end of the row. The + tile adds image files from disk. A tile marked GROUP is an InDesign group, laid out as one image.

Products

Every product in the document, and how many there are. The product you are working on is in bold.

Product name

Selects the whole product on the page: its frame, its images and its overlays. Then the Layout tile shows it.

Tags

Its image count, then Locked and a number when some of its images are locked with Object ▸ Lock (they stay where they are when it is laid out again), and Disconnected while Assemblr is leaving it alone; select it to Reconnect or Reset.

Disassemble

Takes the product apart: its frame goes, and every image stays where it stands.

+

Ends every strip: adds image files from disk to that product, without selecting it first.

Images

Drag a tile from one product's strip into another's and the image moves to that product; both are laid out again. A dimmed tile is an image removed from the layout: its + puts it back. A disconnected product's strip is dimmed and takes no drops.

Pages

A divider names the page where the list moves on to it: Page 3, Pages 4-5 for a product across the spine, and Pasteboard for a product off the pages. It is a heading only.

The drawing

The product's image area at its own shape, a control on each corner: a dot where the corner holds overlays, a plus where it holds none. Click one to open that corner; the open corner is blue, and so are its overlays. A box drawn in orange is one this product or page set itself.

Where it applies

With a product selected, Product: and its name, for that product alone; click it off to edit its page instead. With no product selected, Document, which every product follows until it sets a corner of its own, and a chip per page: turn pages on to give them overlays of their own, which a page keeps when products move.

The corner

The product and the open corner, and what is on it, each with × to take it off. Follows the document, until you give it its own; then Apply document setting drops its own and shows the document's again, keeping its price.

Price

Type the product's price, such as $12.50. Its digits are written into your own price design, its styles kept, and each product types its own. A design with another field, such as Unit, gets a box of its own under the price.

Load badge… and Load price…

Bring new artwork into the document. Load badge… takes any files InDesign can place, PNG, PSD, PDF or AI. Load price… takes a folder of InDesign files with X where the digits go, such as $X.XX or XXc: no tagging needed, and each price is drawn with the design that fits it.

The document's overlays

Each badge and price set already in the document, as a + chip: click one to put it on this corner.

Apply this corner

To page makes this corner the same on every other product on this page; to document makes it the document's, for every product that follows it. Each product keeps its own price.

Corner and Stack

The four corners again: click another to move this corner's overlays there, or to swap them with what is there; they keep their settings. Stack lays them along the corner's top or bottom edge (Across) or its side (Down).

Size and spacing

Gap between the overlays, and Inset X and Y from the image area's edges, in the document's ruler units. Resize scale on makes them resize with the product. Each overlay fits in a Max width by Max height, in points or as a % of the product's image area.

Reports

What happened when the overlays were laid: "Overlays: 3 placed, 0 removed." A yellow triangle marks a problem, such as a badge that could not be loaded or a price no design fits.

In this document

Every badge and price set the document holds; × removes one from the list and from every product. A set lists its designs and what each spells, $X.XX say. A file marked cannot be found keeps working on the pages from the copy the document holds.