Necessity truly is the mother of invention. Here's an example. Someone (who will go unamed...OK, me) that does not scan every day, ran into a little problem. I'm working on a project for another article that involves scanning a disassembled mouse. I scanned one side, flipped it, and scanned the other without thinking too much about the model formation in Studio....and this is what I saw when I looked at the screen...
Have you ever wanted to write a script that saves a file to the current user's desktop? Do you want to find out how? Enjoy this week's Knowledge Base Nugget...
Q: How can I find the current User folders using Python?
Lately I've been having to perform a lot of vector math...what fun. Luckily the GPSE comes preloaded with helper functions and overloaded arithmetic operators. Here's today's nugget...projecting points to a plane.
Q: How can I use Python to project points to a plane?
System integration is where the "rubber hits the road" when we talk about process computerization and automation in the same sentence. Computerization alone for tasks such as 3D part inspection or the analysis and preparation of scans for rapid prototyping may not provide an optimal process conversion from manual to digital.
Automation adds a new level of productivity, a new level of speed, and an integral part of it is communicating the resultant data to and from connected sensors and computing systems. Seamlessly transferring data to and from other formats, other systems, and other applications is crucial. However, there are times where a simple cut and paste will suffice, and although we are working hard to make this easier and GUI driven, GPSE has an answer...
Let's face it...many of us use Microsoft Excel. It's easy to learn, intuitive, and a proven technology that can organize, process, and present data. Even if you haven't authored a Workbook you probably use someone else's spreadsheet and macro's...maybe not even realizing the power at your finger tips. Well my fellow system integrators...tired of CSV?...tired of XML?...get ready and hang on...and let your Geomagic scripts dynamically update your workbooks...
When your scripting solutions become more complex...more powerful...you will most likely need to share values between functions and scripts. You might even need to share information with programs outside of the GPSE.
The Geomagic Python Scripting Environment (GPSE) is just that...an environment...it can be thought of as a door or window to the current session or process of a running Geomagic industrial application...a programming interface to your data and our technology. Each of our v2012 industrial applications: Geomagic Studio/Wrap/Qualify/Probe v2012 includes this programming interface.
| Note: You can now find the GPSE Help through the standard Geomagic Help by pressing the Help Button in your open application, looking up "About Scripting" in the Search Tab, and opening the Scripting Documentation link to the html help system. |
So, where am I going with all this...well, I am simply framing the nugget for this week. The enviroment, the GPSE, is alive as long as the application is running...and it is in this enviroment that you can create and share objects: variables, classes, and functions (models, features, numbers, strings, code, etc.) in and between not only your functions in your script, but also with other scripts and even programs outside of the GPSE. How do you share data between scripts? Enjoy this weeks GPSE snack...
Setting Options can be a powerful tool when automating complex operations. From importing your data to inspecting your parts. But if you are running a batch process, how do you change an option mid-stream? In short...here is the nugget:
There is nothing like a fresh crispy Knowledge Base Nugget on Monday morning. Today's is extra crispy. How do you select multiple objects in the Model Manager with Python? How do you use GPSE API calls and macros together. And...How do you create dynamic Python statements to build and call macros?...all in one Knowledge Base Article? Sounds like a lot....and before we sink our teeth in...
What's a GPSE API you ask? GPSE (pronounced "gypsy") is our acronym for the Geomagic Python Scripting Environment, and API is the industry standard acronym for Application Programming Interface....together they mean using Python to drive our technology.
The benefit of using a scripting language like Python is that it encapsulates huge amounts of work into convenient Modules, Classes, and Functions. This is the case with Python's Tcl/Tk/Tkinter modules.
Quickly, as an example, these modules can be used to present your user with a familiar Window's dialog that enables them to browse and select a folder, file, or a list of files with just a few lines of code. Anyone that has programmed a full blown Window's application can appreciate this...even if you haven't, trust me...asking a user for a file name should not be rocket science. If you can spare a few bucks...please thank the team at the Python Software Foundation for their years of effort...for US Tax payers and some other countries it is tax deductible...check the site if you are unsure.
This post has two purposes. One, through the KB Article, mention the Tcl/Tk modules, the bugs, and what it takes to get them to work from within our applications, and two, announce the new Folder and File Selection Dialog we are adding to our Geomagic Python Scripting Environment (GPSE - pronounced "gypsy") in the upcoming Service Relase. This enhancement eliminates the known bugs and requires nothing outside of a standard Geomagic Qualify, Studio, Wrap, or Qualify Probe 2012.1 installation.
Stay tuned for the Service Release!
Here's the nugget...
Many of my support ticket responses start with a simple question. Is your data "aligned" or oriented? What does that mean?
It means are the scans, or points, or polygons, or even CAD information rotated and translated to a position in 3D space that makes sense to your project? If I scan the water bottle on my desk and try to match it to my CAD model: Is the scan of the bottle superimposed over my CAD model automatically? Is it orented properly? Was my CAD model built off in space somewhere rather than revolved around the Z-Axis and resting on the XY Plane? If they are are not aligned, "How do I fix it?"
This week's Nugget is how to align you data to "The World." That is matched to and rotated "correctly" in relation to the World Coordinate System. This coordinate system exists in every wrp file and is tursned off (not visisble) be default. You can turn it on by putting a check in the World Coordinate checkbox on the Display Tab (behind the Model Manager Tab.)
