Export Counter Variables

Darty's Export Counter Variables are 'meta-variables' which are not created through variable-data sheets but instead managed in this section of the Export Settings.
They are inserted into, and work only in, the output file directory and filename fields.
Their most common usage is to ensure the outputs are named uniquely, however they could be used in any amount to insert pertinent data into output file paths.

Counter Variable categories

Darty Counter-Variables are of category Variable or Counter.

• Variable Counter-Variables - these are "counter" type variables which store a numeric index value. Every time the counter's watched trigger data-value is updated though any part of the Export process, the index is incremented by a configured step amount.
• Counter Counter-Variables - the other category of counter-variable is "variable". These counter-variables can contain various data values which are not index-based counters.
  For example, the variable colorspace inserts the color space of the current document into the output naming field of choice.

List of Counters

All of the counters have these options.

These are Darty-Ai counter Counter-Variables.

They ensure file paths are unique and keep track of certain running amounts based on the type of counter.

• artboard - this counter tracks the exported artboard amount.
• file - tracks the number of total exported files per Darty Export operation.
• row_file - tracks the number of total exported files per row-record.
• running_file - tracks the amount of total exported files until reset by user or restart of Illustrator.
• template_file - tracks the amount of files exported from a currently-processing template file.
• job - tracks the amount of files processed by a currently-processing Job or Global settings.
• export - tracks amount of total current rows exported.

List of Variables

These variables can contain different types of data, according to the specific variable sub-type.

Padded-Integer Variable

Padded-Integer variables have these options.

This type of variable has an optionally-padded integer for its data value.
Two Darty variables are of this type:

• row - inserts the number of the row currently being exported.
• artboard_number - inserts the number of the artboard currently being exported.

Time Variable

Time variables have these options.

This type of variable has a date-time for its data value.
Three Darty variables are of this type:

• timestamp - the timestamp format YYYYMMDDHHmmss.
• date - the date format YYYYMMDD.
• time - the time format HHmmss.

Each variable can be customized to show a different date-time format.

File-System Variable

All Filesystem variables have these options.

This type of variable has a segment of text-data representing an aspect of a file's attributes in regards to the file-system. Four Darty variables are of this type:

• path - inserts the path of the template's folder. Used for exporting to a path relative to the template file's location.
• document - inserts the template's filename without the extension.
• filename - inserts the template's filename including its extension.
• extension - inserts the document's extension including the dot. (For example: .ai, .pdf).

Text-Information Variable

The text-information variable type inserts a piece of textual data depending on the variable's specific sub-category of text-information.

All 'Text-Info' variables have these options.

Document-Based Information

These three variables show information concerning the state of the document:

• artboard_name - inserts the name of the artboard being exported.
• ruler_unit - inserts the current ruler of the template document.
• colorspace - inserts the current color space of the template document.

Miscellaneous Context Information

These three variables insert some information based on various contextual data during the export process:

• computer_name - inserts the name of the computer which is doing the export.
• user - inserts the computer's logged-in username.
• export_format - inserts the currently-processing export format.

Unit Variable

All Unit variables have these options.

These three variables provide unit-type data:

• artboard_width - inserts the width of the current exported artboard.
• artboard_height - inserts the height of the current exported artboard.
• resolution - inserts the resolution of the current template document.

The unit-type can be configured to be one of these options:

• cm
• document_unit - whatever is the current unit of the Illustrator template.
• feet
• inches
• meters
• mm
• picas
• pt
• px
• yards

Data Cell Variable

This is a special Darty variable which inserts a data-cell value from the imported data-source into the output file path.

Typically used to bring in sheet-data values from cells of a designated column, from a current row in Preview or Export. However, it could also bring in 'static' cell-value when the row is set with a (numeric) value.

All Data-Cell variables have these options.

Using the Data Cell Variable

To use the data-column variable, first click the only available insertion button provided for this variable in the Counters & Variables table.

• Column selector - column indexes from the current data-source are displayed here to choose the column of this inserted variable.
• Row input - uses the currently-exported row with no value by default. Otherwise, it can be set to a static row to always pull a single value.
• Case Transformation - transforms the value's casing to lowercase, UPPERCASE, Title Case or None (default).
• Delimiter - changes spaces and delimiter characters -_;|¦: to a single specified delimiter character.
• RegEx Find - when a regular expression is specified here, Darty will try to search this value in the specified data-cell as a find-value.
• Replace - when the find regular expression is specified and a match is found, replaces the found segment with this replacement value and inserts the result as the variable's end-value.