Illustrator Action : Remove a vertical line after using pathfinder tool

Question

I am trying to generate outline from thousands of images and then cut them in half. I want to automate it. I made Illustrator action which is working really good. The only thing I am not being able to automate is to delete the vertical line (Shown in the picture) to make the path open.

Any idea how to automate it?

I am creating a rectangle to cut the shape in half so if there is a hidden Pathfinder shortcut or tool that leaves the path open after cropping that I can incorporate in the action, that will help too.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I found a trick, if you don't care much about the path quality. Maybe someone can get a better idea from this.

1. From the appearance panel → Clear Appearance

2. Add a stroke linear gradient from black/50% location to white/50% location

   

3. Rasterize it

4. Apply Image Trace selecting Line Art as preset. Illustrator only allows to put in an action the default tracing presets. There's a script in this answer to record a different preset but I couldn't make it work. Maybe it's because the Illustrator version.
5. Expand
6. Simplify if necessary from menu Object → Path → Simplify

All these steps can be recorded in one action and automate the work process, without the need to use the Direct selection tool or any other manual adjustment.

By saving these steps as a script in the Illustrator scripts folder, you can add the script from the File menu in an action.

Answer 2

Save the script below as openpath.jsx or whatever with .jsx and automate it with your batch.

File > Scripts > Other Scripts

for (var i=0;i<app.activeDocument.pathItems.length;i++)  
  if (app.activeDocument.pathItems[i].closed==true)  
  app.activeDocument.pathItems[i].closed=false ;  

Since the boolean operation redefines the starting and closing points of a path, hopefully this will work in all cases.

EDIT

Since the shapes are irregular, following procedure can be used to achieve the desired result.

1) Change the fill to outline for the object that is supposed to be retained
2) Change the fill to white color for the second object (cutter)
3) Select both objects and use Ojbect > Expand (Expand Fill and Stroke)
4) Path Finder > Minus Front

Answer 3

Assuming you're making the rectangles one by one, selecting both shapes and hitting the Action and repeating this workflow on all thousands of shapes...

What I can think of: You can cut everything. Then selecting all and making alignment and deleting de undesired line easily.

See the image below: