Script to create a proper standalone document with some automation on it

[onekk]

Hello, I'm experimenting a little with some scripting.

My new frontier is to make a standalone FCStd file that is autonomous from the creation script, but, as the document is complex and rely on many expressions stored in a spreadsheet "Dimensions" that do the hard work of automating things and with some documentation in "Documentation" as a bonus to add instructions on what to do with parameters.

This is a working example as it is a "side result" of some jobs I have recently done (more complex things could be obtained).

20221208-automation.py

(9.59 KiB) Downloaded 26 times

automation.FCStd

(27.11 KiB) Downloaded 27 times

Note the very different dimension of files, the script and the produced file.

Hoping it will be useful for someone.

I'm interested in some suggestion and "constructive critics".

Regards

Carlo D.

[edwilliams16]

Looks to be a simpler template than having to learn about QT i/o. I personally have less interest in tweaking the UI than working on algorithms.

@onekk

[onekk]

Looks to be a simpler template than having to learn about QT i/o. I personally have less interest in tweaking the UI than working on algorithms.

@onekk

So you prefer this approach over as example a QtDialog taylor made to input data?

It is less powerful, but probably with some more research and maybe some "Feature Request" about improving Spreadsheet it could lead to something interesting.

Script could do a very good job on filling spreadsheet cells, I have done more complex things as you could leverage for loop and such things to automate repetitive tasks, thing of filling proper tuning as example to make a shelve or a drawers chest with different drawers front heights.

Regards

Carlo D.

[onekk]

I have a minor glitch:

If I color a part and then modify a dimension using "Dimensions" spreadsheet, solids are "recalculated" but:

- Shapecolor is not "honoured" and the solids are the "usual grey" (204, 204, 204) in decimal.
- but Shapecolor is correcly set to the desired color, only color is not "re-applied" to the recalculated shape.

I have solved it with this little Macro:

Code: Select all

import FreeCAD
import FreeCADGui

doc = FreeCAD.ActiveDocument

for obj in doc.Objects:
    if obj.TypeId in ('Part::Box', 'Part::Cut'):
        color = obj.ViewObject.ShapeColor
        obj.ViewObject.ShapeColor = color

But is a suboptimal solution, as the file is not anymore "standalone"

Regards

Carlo D.