KB174661416: Automation Engine - Is there a possibility with overlap to get same size tiles using Create tiles task

Question

Using the Create Tiles task, is it possible to create tiles and include an overlap so that all the tiles will be the same size? We would like to stack the printed tiles and guillotine cut them.

Answer

It is not possible to create identically sized tiles with the Create Tiles task if an overlap is used. If an overlapped is used, Automation Engine will create the overlap only between tiles that touch each other. So, the last tile will not include an overlap and will always be smaller than the other tiles by the size of the overlap. If you choose to overlap in both directions, then the first and last tiles will both be smaller than the other (interior) tiles.

Workaround

The output of the Create Tiles task is a multipage PDF. If you have the PDF Processor module, you can use the Split PDF task to separate the pages into individual files and use a router or other workflow controls to direct the last (smaller) file to an Optimize PDF Document or Optimize and Clean (PSFix) task to increase the document size to match the other tiles.