Manufacturing DevBlog

Fusion API: Which API I should choose?

By Xiaodong Liang

Fusion API provides 3 types of languages: Python, JavaScript and C++. I found an interesting discussion on Fusion API forum, where our API designer Brian Ekins gave an answer on the specifics of each language. To make it more searchable on internet, I posted it in the blog. And we could polish it with more information in the future.

There are several things to consider when choosing a language.

As far as the API for each of the languages being developed; functionality is delivered for all three languages at the same time.  Internally, we implement the C++ interface first but then wrappers are constructed automatically for Python and JavaScript.  So all three have the same capabilities.  However, there's one exception to this in that JavaScript doesn't support all of the events.  We ran into a technical problem with events and JavaScript so we've blocked exporting most events in JavaScript.

For speed of execution, C++ will be the fastest since it is compiled code that runs within the Fusion process.  On Windows and Mac, Python also runs in-process but it's interpreted and Python isn't known as a particularly fast language.  On Windows, JavaScript runs out of process and as a result is much slower.  On Mac, it runs in-process and is similar to Python.

For speed of development, much depends on which language you have the most experience with already.  A new language always has a learning curve at the beginning.  But assuming that you are comfortable with all three, I would say that Python is probably the language someone could develop code the fastest in.  One reason for this is that you do the development and debugging within the same IDE.  You can also do some prototyping using the text window in Fusion.  C++ has an advantage that it is typed so you're able to catch many problems while writing and compiling, while you end up debugging a lot of problems at run time with the other two languages.

Another thing to consider is if you plan to deliver your program commercially.  With JavaScript and Python you're essentially delivering your source code.  With C++ you're delivering a binary which is much harder for someone to crack.

If you don't care about the security of your code, I would recommend Python and if you do need to protect your code then C++.

I agree with Brian’s comments. Just one of my practices of Fusion API: I prefer to Python because it is easy to debug and make a quick demo code.

Fusion API: Usage of Table Control

By Xiaodong Liang

Fusion provides various types of controls (CommandInput) for a command. There is a Python demo in API help.

Table type is available with API. It can even embed sub controls within the table or table cell, by which we can implement more scenarios of customization. In my practice recently, I got some knowledge of Table. I am writing down for reference. The whole demo codes has been posted to

https://github.com/xiaodongliang/Fusion-Table-Control

1. CommandInputs.addTableCommandInput adds a new table to the dialog. It defines the table Id, name, columns number and the width ratio of each column. e.g. the code below specifies the table has 3 columns with same width.
     tableInput = inputs.addTableCommandInput(commandId +'my_table', 'Table', 3, '1:1:1')

2. To add a child control to the cell, you need firstly get tableInput.commandInputs and call
   tableInput.addCommandInput (child_control,rowindex, column index)

Note: The API demo above uses childCommandInputs, but this method has been removed. Now please use tableInput.commandInputs

3. If you want to add a child control that locates within the table, instead of a cell, the method is:
     tableInput.addToolbarCommandInput(child_control)

4. , any input changing of a control will fire InputChangedEventHandler. Typically, we will get out the inputs collection of the dialog, and find out the specific control. But in C++, it will be null if getting inputs collection by eventArgs->inputs(). Fortuently, a workaround is available as below.   

class MyCommandInputChange : public InputChangedEventHandler
{
public:
  void notify(const Ptr& eventArgs) override
    {
         Ptr changedInput = eventArgs->input();

	//One issue: in C++, eventArgs->inputs() is invalid if the event is fired for the embedded control within a table
         //Ptr inputs = eventArgs->inputs(); 
	//workaround:
	 Ptr command = eventArgs->firingEvent()->sender();
	 Ptr inputs = command->commandInputs();

Introduction to Fusion 360 API

By Virupaksha Aithal

Here is the recording of the “Introduction to Fusion 360 API” presented on 11th of October 2016

Fusion 360 resources:

Learn about the Fusion 360 API here

Talk to fellow Fusion API enthusiasts on the Fusion 360 API forum

Check out the additional learning resources on Github

See Fusion 360 Fundamentals for learning materials

Autodesk App Store Forge and Fusion 360 Hackathon September 1 - October 31

By Virupaksha Aithal

If you’ve been thinking about developing on the Autodesk® Forge Platform, Autodesk’s new cloud platform, or on Autodesk® Fusion 360™—or, if you’re just curious about learning more about these technologies and what they could do to help your business or your career—join us for our upcoming free online hackathon.  This is our fourth online hackathon and you are welcome to participate in all or any part of it.

The Autodesk® App Store Forge and Fusion 360® Hackathon is an online event which consists of two segments:

1. A series of web training and open Q&A sessions related to the Autodesk Forge platform and Fusion 360 - open to anyone interested in learning about these APIs.
2. An online hackathon where developers can develop new apps on the Forge platform or on Fusion 360 for submission to Autodesk App Store.

We know that learning and implementing something new takes time and often gets put off so we’ve designed this event to give you the support you need - as well as a financial incentive - to motivate you to learn the APIs and publish your app on the Forge platform or on Fusion 360 in the Autodesk App Store. It will make taking action to publish apps simple and feasible. 

The training webinars will help familiarize you with the Forge platform and in the open Q&A sessions you’ll have the opportunity to receive help in real-time from the Autodesk team answering your questions to help you develop your app(s). For all such new apps submitted to the Autodesk App Store by midnight on October 31, 2016 and accepted for publication in the store by November 30, 2016, each entrant of the Hackathon will receive US$ 500 for one eligible app per entrant.

 
You may attend the educational webinars without publishing an app. Click here for Webinar only registration or get full details and register for the Hackathon at http://autodeskforge.devpost.com. If you register for the Hackathon you will automatically be registered for the webinars.  They will be recorded so that you can view them at your convenience.

Visit the pages on the Hackathon website to learn more about the opportunities and resources for developing on Forge, Fusion 360 and publishing in the Autodesk App Store and if you have questions send us an email.

Fusion API: Toggle [Capture Design History]

By Xiaodong Liang

There are two primary ways to work in the "Model" environment; parametrically, which focuses on the relationships between features, or directly, which deals only with selected model faces. The main difference is that "Direct Modeling" functions by manipulating faces without regard for previously established relationships.

There are quite a lot of articles on such topic on internet. I just picked two of them:

http://www.engineering.com/tutorials/turning-off-caption-design-history-in-autodesk-fusion-360/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJU4avXux2s

There is a switch in [Capture Design History] of the context menu of root node of the browser pane.

With API, the corresponding object is adsk.fusion.DesignTypes.

def toogleCaptureHistory(isEnabled):
     app = adsk.core.Application.get()
     des = adsk.fusion.Design.cast(app.activeProduct)
     
     if isEnabled:
         des.designType = adsk.fusion.DesignTypes.ParametricDesignType 
     else:
         des.designType = adsk.fusion.DesignTypes.DirectDesignType
    

Delete Objects with Fusion 360 API

By Xiaodong Liang

All objects that can be deleted support the the deleteMe method. The usage is  very straightforward. Get the object and call deleteMe.

I found a forum post that one customer failed to delete the object which is within the generic object collection.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/api-and-scripts/how-do-i-delete-a-sketch-curve-line-arc-etc/m-p/6394526#U6394526

but, it looks working well at my side. The following code demo three scenarios:

1. delete selected objects

2. delete the specific object in the collection created by UI

3. delete the specific object in the generic collection (e.g. in this code, the collection is the offset curves collection)

def deleteObjectsOfSelection():

    app = adsk.core.Application.get()
    try:      
        #assume some entities are selected
        for eachObj in app.userInterface.activeSelections:
            if eachObj.isValid:
                #get the selected entity of the selection.                
                #call deleteMe
                eachObj.entity.deleteMe()
    except:
        ui = app.userInterface
        if ui:
            ui.messageBox('Failed:\n{}'.format(traceback.format_exc()))  
            

def deleteItemOfObjCollectionItem():

    app = adsk.core.Application.get()
    
    try:
        #current product            
        product = app.activeProduct
        #current component
        rootComp = product.rootComponent 
        #get sketches collection
        sketches = rootComp.sketches
        #get one sketch 
        if sketches.count > 0:
            oneSketch = sketches.item(0)
            oneSketch.deleteMe()
       
    except:
        ui = app.userInterface
        if ui:
            ui.messageBox('Failed:\n{}'.format(traceback.format_exc()))             


def deleteItemOfGenericCollection():
    app = adsk.core.Application.get()
    ui = app.userInterface
    
    try:
      
        
        #select a sketch        
        selectedObjs = app.userInterface.activeSelections
        if selectedObjs.count == 0:
           ui.messageBox('no object is selected in the document!')
           return
        
        oneObj = selectedObjs.item(0)
        if oneObj.entity.objectType != 'adsk::fusion::Sketch':
             print( oneObj.entity.objectType)
             ui.messageBox('not a sketch!')
             return        
        sketchIn = oneObj.entity 
        
        sketchIn.isComputeDeferred = True
        
        curvesIn = sketchIn.sketchCurves
        if curvesIn.count == 0:
             ui.messageBox('no curve in the sketch!')
             return
             
        curvesForOffset = adsk.core.ObjectCollection.create() 
        offsetCurves = adsk.core.ObjectCollection.create()
        
        curvesForOffset = sketchIn.findConnectedCurves(curvesIn.item(0));
        offsetCurves = sketchIn.offset(curvesForOffset, adsk.core.Point3D.create(100,100,100), 2.0);
        
        if offsetCurves == None or offsetCurves.count ==0:
             ui.messageBox('no offset curves are created!')
             return
        
        transform = adsk.core.Matrix3D.create();
        
        #current product            
        product = app.activeProduct
        #current component
        rootComp = product.rootComponent 
        #get sketches collection
        sketches = rootComp.sketches
        
        #create a new sketch 
        sketchOut = sketches.add(rootComp.xYConstructionPlane)
        sketchIn.copy(offsetCurves, transform, sketchOut);
        
        #delete the offseted curves in sketchIn
        for eachCurve in offsetCurves:
            eachCurve.deleteMe()
        
        sketchIn.isComputeDeferred =False 
       
    except:
        ui = app.userInterface
        if ui:
            ui.messageBox('Failed:\n{}'.format(traceback.format_exc()))  
     

Pre-DevCon Workshops

By Adam Nagy

In case you did not spot this on the Forge DevCon site, the day before the conference we are also organizing workshops that you're welcome to attend - including a Fusion 360 API workshop with Brian and a few of us :)

See you there! :)

Fusion API: Change Appearance of Body

By Xiaodong Liang

Various objects in Fusion 360 can be applied with material and appearance. Appearance is how the object looks like. While Material is the physical property of an object. It has a default appearance. e.g. an object with “Leather, weathered” would look like this.

However we can override its appearance with other type.

By this mean, the appearance of a material is not changed. Only the appearance of body is changed.

The corresponding APIs are:

• BRepBody.material which is a Material object.

• BrepBody.appearance which is an Appearance object.

So, if we test with the following JavaScript code before overriding the appearance, it will tell the material is “Leather, weathered” and material’s appearance and body’s appearance are both “Leather, weathered”. After overriding, material is “Leather, weathered”, material’s appearance are not either changed, but the body’s appearance is “Glass - Heavy Color (Blue)” now.

function run(context) {

    "use strict"; 
    
    if (adsk.debug === true) { 
        /*jslint debug: true*/ 
        debugger; 
        /*jslint debug: false*/ 
    }

    var ui; 
    try { 
        var app = adsk.core.Application.get(); 
        ui = app.userInterface;

        var product = app.activeProduct; 
        var design = adsk.fusion.Design(product); 
        
        //get the first body of the root component 
        var rootComp = design.rootComponent; 
        var body = rootComp.bRepBodies.item(0); 
        
        //body material 
        var bodyM = body.material; 
        ui.messageBox('body material is: ' + bodyM.name);        
        //appearance with the material 
        var MaterialA =bodyM.appearance; 
        ui.messageBox('material appearance is: ' + MaterialA.name); 
        
        //body appearance 
        var BodyA = body.appearance; 
        ui.messageBox('body appearance is: ' + BodyA.name); 
    } 
    catch (e) { 
        if (ui) { 
            ui.messageBox('Failed : ' + (e.description ? e.description : e)); 
        } 
    }    

    adsk.terminate(); 
} 

To change the material /appearance, you need to firstly get the material/appearance from the libraries, and set them to object.material or object.appearance.

 

function run(context) {

    "use strict"; 
    
    if (adsk.debug === true) { 
        /*jslint debug: true*/ 
        debugger; 
        /*jslint debug: false*/ 
    }

    var ui; 
    try { 
        var app = adsk.core.Application.get(); 
        ui = app.userInterface;

        var product = app.activeProduct; 
        var design = adsk.fusion.Design(product); 
        
        //get the first body of the root component 
        var rootComp = design.rootComponent; 
        var body = rootComp.bRepBodies.item(0); 
        
        //body material 
        var bodyM = body.material; 
        ui.messageBox('body material is: ' + bodyM.name);        
        //appearance with the material 
        var MaterialA =bodyM.appearance; 
        ui.messageBox('material appearance is: ' + MaterialA.name); 
        
        //body appearance 
        var BodyA = body.appearance; 
        ui.messageBox('body appearance is: ' + BodyA.name);         
        
        //get material lib 
        var mLibs = app.materialLibraries;                
        var mLib = mLibs.itemByName("Fusion 360 Material Library");         
        //get one material from this lib 
        var mOne = mLib.materials.itemByName("ABS Plastic"); 
        //change body material 
        body.material = mOne; 
        app.activeViewport.refresh(); 
        ui.messageBox('take a look at the screen after material is changed: ');        
        
        //get appearance lib 
        var appearanceLib1 = mLibs.itemByName("Fusion 360 Appearance Library");            
         //get one material from this lib 
        var aOne = appearanceLib1.appearances.itemByName("Fabric (Green)"); 
        //change body appearance 
        body.appearance = aOne; 
        app.activeViewport.refresh();  
        ui.messageBox('take a look at the screen after appearance is changed: ');        
       
    } 
    catch (e) { 
        if (ui) { 
            ui.messageBox('Failed : ' + (e.description ? e.description : e)); 
        } 
    }    
  

    adsk.terminate(); 
} 

Medical Analysis of Fusion 360

By Xiaodong Liang

The Simulation workspace of Fusion 360 now has Medical Analysis functionality in the Studies selection panel. The first version of Medical Study allows analysis of muscle dynamics, skeleton structure, vessel pressure. This is mainly to research the artificial organ whether it is fit for an individual.

The typical workflow is: scan the base shape of human body from the individual by Recap 360, import the shape of an artificial organ. e.g. a study on artificial heart, finally do Medical study. The study will tell which sections need to be adjusted. Since Fusion 360 has powerful free-form designing (T-Spline), we can easily modify the detail of the heart until it meets the physiological index.

Some relevant APIs have been exposed. And it is organized according to the anatomy. If we want to get the pressure of one vessel, the Python code would be:

 

The future related feature is Remote Treatment Simulation. Fusion 360 will integrate with the web services of SeeControl. Those services connect to the various sensors (on the organs) and emit the data. Fusion 360 will do study based on the real-time data, without pre-import those data.

To get all of these update please see more at newsletter of Autodesk Forge. Enjoy  :)

(the models of body and heart are from www.tf3dm.com. the image of anatomy is from http://en.academic.ru/. Thanks.)

Fusion API: Create ConstructionPlane from Plane in Parametric Modeling

By Xiaodong Liang

The following code is a snippet of my add-in, Basically, it will create a ConstructionPlane based on a Plane. However, it failed at sketch = sketches.add(cons_plane).After debugging, I found constructionPlanes.add returns nothing, that is why sketches.add failed.

import adsk.core, adsk.fusion, traceback
def run(context):
ui = None
try:
app = adsk.core.Application.get()
ui = app.userInterface
product = app.activeProduct
rootComp = product.rootComponent
pt_3d_1 = adsk.core.Point3D.create(0,0,0)
normal = adsk.core.Vector3D.create(0,0,1)
plane = adsk.core.Plane.create(pt_3d_1,normal)
print(plane.normal.x,plane.normal.y,plane.normal.z)
cons_planes = rootComp.constructionPlanes
print(cons_planes.count)
cons_planeInput = cons_planes.createInput()
cons_planeInput.setByPlane(plane)
cons_plane = cons_planes.add(cons_planeInput)
#watch cons_plane. it is none.
sketches = rootComp.sketches
#throw exception because cons_plane is none
sketch = sketches.add(cons_plane)
#can work if using default plane
#xyPlane = rootComp.xYConstructionPlane
#sketch = sketches.add(xyPlane)
except:
if ui:
ui.messageBox('Failed:\n{}'.format(traceback.format_exc()))

 

When we create a construction plane in [non-Parametric Modeling], it has no relationship to anything else and is positioned in space.  We can use the Move command to reposition it anywhere in the model.  When working in [Parametric Modeling], the construction plane remembers the input geometry and is tied to it.  If that geometry changes, the construction plane will be recomputed.  It’s not possible to create a construction plane that has not relationship to anything.  The exception to this is because I create a construction plane and then delete whatever it’s dependent on.  But then it just becomes sick and the only option is to redefine it which means I need to re-associate it to some other geometry. Finally, I got know the root reason. It is an as design behavior in [Parametric Modeling]. Fusion 360 provides two types of modeling: [Parametric Modeling] and [non-Parametric Modeling]. The former is also called modeling with history, while the latter is called direct modeling.

Construction planes are real entities, while Plane object is transient, which just provides the mathematical definition of a plane.

So in [non-Parametric Modeling], the code will work well.

In default, the modeling mode follows the setting in Preference

If you want to switch the modeling mode in the middle way, you can right click the root node and click the last menu item.