Coding python nodes for beginners here. What is a good way to set up an external IDE for python node development for civil 3d? I see online that people have used “ctypes” to utilize .dll files in python. I also see that the default python nodes in dynamo “import clr”. I assume that’s referring to t…

Looks like “clr” is allowing me to import the .dll files. and the from Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime import * type of code line is working fine but code such as: import Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices.Application as acapp is not working. Guessing this is an issue with not having IronPython2 in m…

Guessing I just had to format it like this! Seems to be working… [Proper Syntax]

Trying to recreate this script in an external IDE to test but running into a problem already: Rename XREFs in multiple dwgs - #29 by WrightEngineering I’ve tried to use dir(Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices.Application) and I can see that “.DocumentManager” is an available member but I get a Th…

I think you need to save this and call it from inside the Dynamo for Civil 3D environment, although I haven’t attempted this type of setup before. Reason I think this is the case is that the Python file itself doesn’t have direct hooks into the active AutoCAD instance; DLLs are loaded sure, but you …

Jacob, Thanks for the reply! That makes a lot of sense. In Dynamo, the Dynamo application is pointing to the active autoCAD application instance. I think reading the raw text of the file and using the python script from string node seems really useful but would mostly just be helping me not copy an…

[image] WrightEngineering: Now I see that he was probably referring to coding in that environment and then copying it over? That’s correct. It would be a challenge to actually hook it up to an AutoCAD process (via COM API). There’s this example for Revit, but I haven’t seen it done with AutoC…

Hmmm. Yeah and even that doesn’t seem to be running the file directly through pycharm. Looks like there is some “wrapper” that needs to be used? Would be really cool if I could connect a jupyter notebook directly to an AutoCAD process but even that example with revit doesn’t seem to have that functi…

[image] WrightEngineering: I think the following may be a good question for @solamour : Is there a way to “hook” into an active instance of the Civil 3D/AutoCAD application in an external IDE when using python? As it stands right now, unfortunately not. Python itself is technically operating i…

Very interesting. So there is a bridge between the Python VM and Dynamo that is built into the dynamo source code? Which is written in C#? Is it possible to build a bridge using C# as well? If so, do you know of any good learning materials? I may be above my head but I’m just curious :slight_smile:

It’s beyond me too :smiley: The developers on the team are bonkers awesome. We use Python.NET as the CPython3 flavour that can talk to the world of .NET which could be worth exploring :raised_hands:

Coding Python Nodes for Dynamo for Civil 3D in an External IDE

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mzjensen June 7, 2022, 4:27pm 7

That’s correct. It would be a challenge to actually hook it up to an AutoCAD process (via COM API). There’s this example for Revit, but I haven’t seen it done with AutoCAD. Probably because if you’re going to go through all of that work, you may as well just write ZT nodes.

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Coding Python Nodes for Dynamo for Civil 3D in an External IDE

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