[FEATURE REQUEST/DISCUSSION] Adding support for 3DExperience- through new interfaces or pycatia fork?

[HubertDomaros]

Is your feature request related to the CAA V5 Automation API?
This feature is related to integrating 3DX Automation API

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Hi :)

These days, more and more companies start to switch from V5 to 3DExperience.
From what we can read in Automation API documentation for 3DX, on part level, the Automation API is essentially the same as in V5:

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The main difference comes with how we access the part. Instead of obtaining it through for ex. Application().ActiveDocument().Part, now we have Editor object.

So now, we need to get it through Application().ActiveEditor().ActiveObject()

Obviously, currently we don't have Editor object in pycatia..
And with this comes the question- would it make sense to integrate 3DX interfaces into current pycatia? If so, how to do it? Do we create 3dx version of InfInterfaces? Add a submodule, something like py3dx_in_interfaces? Or create new fork of pycatia, focused only on 3dx?

[evereux]

And with this comes the question- would it make sense to integrate 3DX interfaces into current pycatia? If so, how to do it? Do we create 3dx version of InfInterfaces? Add a submodule, something like py3dx_in_interfaces? Or create new fork of pycatia, focused only on 3dx?

Add a submodule, something like py3dx_in_interfaces?

I think this is how I would do it.

It would be great to integrate the 3DX interface into pycatia but there would be some limitations in doing so. Mainly, I don't have access to a 3DX workstation for testing (possibly next year, not sure). Until I do I would be hesitant in merging any changes related to 3DX into the main branch. If there are any companies out there that could help out with this drop me an email: evereux@gmail.com.

What I could do is create a 3DX branch for development in the meantime? Ofcourse, there's nothing stopping you or anyone else from creating their own fork and do this work.

I maybe able to get the documentation from a colleague. Failing that if someone could email me the equivalent 3DX automation.chm that would be great! evereux@gmail.com

[ptm-tm]

for 3dexpirience use embedded python:-)

C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B421\win_b64\code\python2.7\lib

[evereux]

Just a brief update... I now have a copy of the 3DX automation chm file.

I haven't yet had a chance to generate the modules. I hope to be able to do that after I've released 0.9.1.

for 3dexpirience use embedded python:-)

Fair point. It would still be nice to incorporate 3DX functionality into pycatia for the following reasons:

• Python 2.7 is EOL from January 2020.
• Improved syntax features in Python >3.9.
• As 3DX adoption increases I'm sure I'm going to keep getting asked about this.
• It would make pycatia even more awesome. 😊

[HubertDomaros]

Just FYI, 3DX R2025x includes support for python 3.11.8:

Previous release, R2024, has support for Python 3.10. I am not sure about the update cycle for earlier versions, would have to dig into support docs, maybe I will take a look into this

As a side note for general audience, keep in mind, that on-premise releases of 3DX are not always aligned with cloud release cycle- this is very often in enterprise environments.

[evereux]

Interesting, thanks for the information!

The main reason pycatia exits is because some features of the CATIA V5 COM interface don't work directly with Python, for example Measurable.get_cog() where we use Application.system_service() to run VBA code.

Does everything work OK out the box with Python and CATIA 3DX?

[HubertDomaros]

Didn't check these methods yet, I'll try to check them in my free time.

FYI, Dassault includes com3dx package/script, which uses pywin32 as pycatia does, but doesn't wrap any functions as stubs etc., so you don't get decent IDE support with it.