Accessing GUI of CAD through Tcl/Tk
in [TCL]
|
From: S-Y. Chen on 11 Dec 2009 00:42 Dear All, I am trying to control some CAD package through Tcl. The painful thing is that, I have to control the CAD (only) through GUI. What I need to do is actually fairly simple (for a human beings) 1. Launch a CAD in Tcl/tk 2. File > Open to Load a file into the CAD 3. Find out some specific items in one of the panels 4. Right-click the mouse on 3, which will pop-up a menu. Left-Click on some specific item on the pull-down menu (which will bring up another dialog box) 5. input/change parameters at the dialog box from 4. 6. close the dialog box. This will make some change to the model. 7. Save, or export, the CAD model into a new file. Some time-consuming task may be done here, which will take some time. 8. Wait until 7 is done, exit the CAD 9. Return control to Tcl/Tk I think TWAPI may be able to do that. However I can not find any similar examples on its web site. Can anyone point me to the correct direction here ? Thanks in advance for any help. Regards S-Y. Chen
From: Harald Oehlmann on 11 Dec 2009 08:43 On 11 Dez., 06:42, "S-Y. Chen" <shenyeh_c...(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > I am trying to control some CAD package through Tcl. The painful > thing is that, I have to control the CAD (only) through GUI. > > What I need to do is actually fairly simple (for a human beings) > > 1. Launch a CAD in Tcl/tk > 2. File > Open to Load a file into the CAD > 3. Find out some specific items in one of the panels > 4. Right-click the mouse on 3, which will pop-up a menu. Left-Click on > some specific item on the pull-down menu (which will bring up another > dialog box) > 5. input/change parameters at the dialog box from 4. > 6. close the dialog box. This will make some change to the model. > 7. Save, or export, the CAD model into a new file. Some time-consuming > task may be done here, which will take some time. > 8. Wait until 7 is done, exit the CAD > 9. Return control to Tcl/Tk > > I think TWAPI may be able to do that. However I can not find any > similar examples on its web site. Hi S-Y. Chen, IMHO this might be a very difficult task in general. - Start the CAD using exec - (use TWAPI to check if the main window is up) - Send keys to CAD using TWAPI - send mause clicks to CAD using TWAPI if they are at fix positions (relative to a window at least). - your point 3 seams to be very tough: "3. Find out some specific items in one of the panels" Is there a list on the screen which sould be read ? Should someone do a screen shot - read what is on and decide or click oin function of the contents ? This is tough... Eventually, there is a special tool which does that. If it is a standard windows control, one may read the contents for example of a drop-down box by windows messages, but this is expert work.... Hope this helps, Harald
From: S-Y. Chen on 11 Dec 2009 10:09 On Dec 11, 9:43 pm, Harald Oehlmann <wortka...(a)yahoo.de> wrote: > On 11 Dez., 06:42, "S-Y. Chen" <shenyeh_c...(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > > > > > I am trying to control some CAD package through Tcl. The painful > > thing is that, I have to control the CAD (only) through GUI. > > > What I need to do is actually fairly simple (for a human beings) > > > 1. Launch a CAD in Tcl/tk > > 2. File > Open to Load a file into the CAD > > 3. Find out some specific items in one of the panels > > 4. Right-click the mouse on 3, which will pop-up a menu. Left-Click on > > some specific item on the pull-down menu (which will bring up another > > dialog box) > > 5. input/change parameters at the dialog box from 4. > > 6. close the dialog box. This will make some change to the model. > > 7. Save, or export, the CAD model into a new file. Some time-consuming > > task may be done here, which will take some time. > > 8. Wait until 7 is done, exit the CAD > > 9. Return control to Tcl/Tk > > > I think TWAPI may be able to do that. However I can not find any > > similar examples on its web site. > > Hi S-Y. Chen, > IMHO this might be a very difficult task in general. > > - Start the CAD using exec > - (use TWAPI to check if the main window is up) > - Send keys to CAD using TWAPI > - send mause clicks to CAD using TWAPI if they are at fix positions > (relative to a window at least). > > - your point 3 seams to be very tough: > "3. Find out some specific items in one of the panels" > Is there a list on the screen which sould be read ? > Should someone do a screen shot - read what is on and decide or click > oin function of the contents ? > This is tough... Eventually, there is a special tool which does that. > If it is a standard windows control, one may read the contents for > example of a drop-down box by windows messages, but this is expert > work.... > > Hope this helps, > Harald Thanks Harald. There is a list of object on the "tree", and we know which one to get. But, pointing to a screen position will not be a good solution, because it may change from machine to machine. So, you said there is a special tool which does that. Can you tell which one it is ? Regards S-Y. Chen
From: oc_forums on 11 Dec 2009 14:05 On 11 déc, 16:09, "S-Y. Chen" <shenyeh_c...(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > On Dec 11, 9:43 pm, Harald Oehlmann <wortka...(a)yahoo.de> wrote: > > > > I am trying to control some CAD package through Tcl. The painful > > > thing is that, I have to control the CAD (only) through GUI. > Hello, Does it have a COM exposition ? In that case you may have a look at : http://wfr.tcl.tk/1012 where there is some examples using tcom extension (Autocad, Catia,...) or see http://wiki.tcl.tk/13429 If so, you may have access to the "tree" directly ? Olivier.
From: S-Y. Chen on 12 Dec 2009 11:30
On Dec 12, 3:05 am, oc_forums <oliviercolin...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On 11 déc, 16:09, "S-Y. Chen" <shenyeh_c...(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > > > On Dec 11, 9:43 pm, Harald Oehlmann <wortka...(a)yahoo.de> wrote: > > > > > I am trying to control some CAD package through Tcl. The painful > > > > thing is that, I have to control the CAD (only) through GUI. > > Hello, > > Does it have a COM exposition ? In that case you may have a look at :http://wfr.tcl.tk/1012 > where there is some examples using tcom extension (Autocad, Catia,...) > or seehttp://wiki.tcl.tk/13429 > If so, you may have access to the "tree" directly ? > > Olivier. Unfortunately, some of them have COM, but some don't. A lot of these packages (FEA, CAE,...) are written by people like me, who just want to have a usable GUI for the users. COM is just far too complicate for us. I am thinking that, if there is a more systematic way in TWAPI to invoke the simple actions like Clicking on File > Save as , or something on the pull-down menu, without having to actually move the mouse. I have been looking into AutoIt, but then that means I have to include AutoIt in my application too. Any idea how can I do this in a more convenient way ? Regards S-Y. Chen |