Dynamo Challenge 05: Connect to Something Interesting

[solamour]

Image source

Hello Dynamites!

We are super excited to introduce to you a series of Dynamo Challenges meant to inspire, to push boundaries, to explore lateral solutions and to grow your knowledge of Dynamo.

05 - CONNECT TO SOMETHING INTERESTING CHALLENGE:
Did you ever want to connect Dynamo to something else? Is the current world of Dynamo too small for your liking? Did you want to think laterally and go where nobody has taken Dynamo before?

Then look no further as we have the challenge for you! Introducing the connect to something interesting challenge, were we invite you to build a bridge between Dynamo and something awesome. Hardware, software, Cloud and beyond… the world is your oyster!

This challenge will run for almost two weeks, starting on Monday 22nd August at 9am EST, running until Thursday 1st September at 5pm EST.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS:

1. Dynamo must be used in or part of your submission.
2. If you use a Dynamo graph, your .DYN file must be attached to your submission.
3. If you use a Custom Package or Node in your submission, it must be hosted on Package Manager. Note: This may mean uploading a package!
4. This topic will be left open for discussion - use to your hearts content! Upon deadline of challenge, moderators will edit the post to introduce a community poll to select winners.
5. We very much encourage wrong answers! Have fun with it.

SUBMISSION OF ENTRY:
All submissions are blind via Direct Message to @solamour and @jacob.small with the Challenge as your title - this link will start a handy message template. Please include all relevant files to execute the graph and reproduce your result as well as a still image(s).

PRIZES:

1. 1st Place = “Dynamo Challenge Winner” forum badge
2. 2nd Place = “Dynamo Challenge Runner-up” forum badge
3. Both = Presented in print media at the Autodesk University 2022 Dynamo Party

ALL CHALLENGES AND DATES:

• Dynamo Challenge 01: Redesign the Dynamo Logo with Dynamo, running between 2022-07-25T04:00:00Z→2022-08-04T16:00:00Z
• Dynamo Challenge 02: Geometric Patterning, running between 2022-08-01T04:00:00Z→2022-08-11T16:00:00Z
• Dynamo Challenge 03: Wrong tool with Great Output, running between 2022-08-08T04:00:00Z→2022-08-18T16:00:00Z
• Dynamo Challenge 04: Furniture Design, running between 2022-08-15T04:00:00Z→2022-08-25T16:00:00Z
• Dynamo Challenge 05: Connect to Something Interesting, running between 2022-08-22T04:00:00Z→2022-09-01T16:00:00Z

We are super excited to see what all of you come up with and are here to cheerlead you on our journey to Dynamo Challenge greatness!

[solamour]

And our final Dynamo Challenge is now live! So come, have a read and submit your entry to connect Dynamo to something interesting!

[Marcel_Rijsmus]

My mind wanders of, and i can imagine the X,Y plane being some sort of plane with a horizon, stars moving across the X,Y,Z coordinates from some astronomy database and point out the Southern Cross in Kiwiland. The only input in Dynamo player would be a date.
Having a correction for the

Milankovitch cycles

would be something extra.
Calculating where we are in the cycles is another thing.
HA!

[viktor_kuzev]

Apart from the architecture/BIM/Computational Design and revit tools I make electronic music.
So a few years ago I thought to myself
“I have this cool midi controller with a ton of knobs, wouldn’t it be cool if I could map them to geometry controlling variables”
So I got a python midi package, I spent a ton of time figuring out why I can’t detect the midi signal, eventually I did and I managed to map it to a variable and right there and then I dropped the project.
Now this challenge looks suitable for it doesn’t it?

[Draxl_Andreas]

@viktor_kuzev ,

like this old stuff…

Parametric Patterns: Equalizer Controller

[viktor_kuzev]

@Draxl_Andreas oh yeah Zach Kron’s Buildz has given me so much inspiration when I was still in uni, trying to make fancy projects in Revit, while everyone else was saying Revit isn’t any good for complex geometry.
And since midi is just values between 0 and 128 you can remap them to whatever. I might give this a second try now for the challenge.

[Draxl_Andreas]

@viktor_kuzev ,

i tried this years ago… to implement in projects, BUT … still nondynamo elements.

[solamour]

This Challenge is perfect for this! Please do submit your entry. There is a link above in the message.

[MartinSpence]

That sounds extremely cool

[solamour]

Hello Dynamites!

This Challenge is now over (Oops on the delay… week got away from me) - a massive thanks to all who submitted their entries for the Dynamo Connect to Something Interesting challenge, and we can’t wait to see what epic things you have connected Dynamo to!

All graphs will become available after the close of the voting session in the Challenge Library as well as present in this thread, so that you can inspect each DYN file to help you choose your favorite! You can vote based on any criteria you like: Obviousness, randomness, usefulness, strangeness or any other!

Dynamo Challenge 05: Connect to Something Interesting

• Entry 01: “Windows text to speech personal programming buddy”
• Entry 02: “Dotbim file imported in Sketchup”
• Entry 03: “DynaWeb Dynamo Forum Searcher”
• Entry 04: “Using Python in Dynamo to install Python in Dynamo”
• Entry 05: “Live NZ Power Grid Generation Visualizer”
• Entry 06: “Hywe connection for browser-based layout planning”

Entry 01: "Windows text to speech personal programming buddy"

Blurb:
The D1000 connects Dynamo to the Windows text to speech feature. It acts as your personal programming buddy, cleaning and reviewing data you give to it and stopping you from sending dirty or big data downstream where it might cause problems. It also has a great sense of humour and likes to tell jokes.

If you’re feeling creative, try hiding your very own D1000 inside scripts you share with colleagues. You can make it say all sorts of things using similar code to this example, such as ‘Windows has detected an error and will now restart’. With great power comes great hilarity.

D1000.dyn (17.2 KB)

Entry 02: "Dotbim file imported in Sketchup"

Blurb:
With this challenge I connect to the new fileformat .bim: dotbim.net

This is a very cool new file format to describe bim files in a very simple way.
Yes we can use Ifc but for some applications a simpler format is easier.
Also, everybody can read it and therefor write it. Right? Well… I can, with dynamo.
It uses triangulated geometry so the polygons from challenge 2 came in handy.
It describes each mesh as if it is a Family definition. after the meshes I define the instances by providing names, locations and rotations. The rotation uses the quaternion method. So now I can also create moving robot arms in Dynamo. Haha no.
elements can have a color. So here I connected to some other interresting thing. A website.
By using webrequest to retrieve random integers from the website random.org I can set random colors for all the elements.

The graph writes to a .bim file. This is tecxt so you need to create an empty txt-file and rename it to .bim. I cannot upload .bim files here. The result can be viewed in any notepad. But to prove it actually works I imported into sketchUP.

Next steps are to create a more universal export-graph.
And an import-graph. I’ve seen different files where the different parts like rotation, GUIDs and typename etc, are in different places.

So 3 connections: dotbim, random.org and SketchUP!

Thanks for pushing me to start working on this thing I kept postponing!

Dotbim file imported in SketchUp:

Another interesting something:

Part of the dotbim file viewed in Notepad++:

Dynamo Challenge 05.dyn (514.0 KB)

Entry 03: "DynaWeb Dynamo Forum Searcher"

Blurb:
A simple showcase about the DynaWeb package, in this case I used the DynaWeb package to create a Dynamo Forum search system without having to open the Dynamo forum myself

Thanks!

DynaWeb Dynamo Forum Searcher.dyn (80.7 KB)

Entry 04: "Using Python in Dynamo to install Python in Dynamo"

Blurb:
I found the step by step description to install Python modules a bit cumbersome, so I automated it, at least for a Windows environment. Comments welcome:

#https://github-wiki-see.page/m/DynamoDS/Dynamo/wiki/Customizing-Dynamo%27s-Python-3-installation
import platform, os, subprocess, importlib.util, sys

from System import Environment
from System.Net import WebClient

dirName = f'python-{platform.python_version()}-embed-amd64'
localappdatapath = os.getenv(r'LOCALAPPDATA')
dirPath = os.path.join(localappdatapath, dirName)
assert os.path.isdir(dirPath)
bootstrapPipFilePath = os.path.join(dirPath, 'get-pip.py')
if not os.path.isfile(bootstrapPipFilePath):
    WebClient().DownloadFile('https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py', bootstrapPipFilePath)
pthFilePath = os.path.join(dirPath, 'python38._pth')
assert os.path.isfile(pthFilePath)
replace = False
with open(pthFilePath, 'r') as f:
    lines = f.readlines()
    if '#' in lines[-1]: 
        lines[-1] = lines[-1].replace('#','')
        replace = True
if replace:
    with open(pthFilePath, 'w') as f:
        f.writelines(lines)
pipDirPath = os.path.join(dirPath, 'Scripts')
if not os.path.isdir(pipDirPath):
    OUT = f'installing pip in local Python environment: {dirPath}'
    batPath = os.path.join(localappdatapath,'Temp', 'pipInstall.bat')
    with open(batPath, 'w') as f:
        f.write(f'cd {dirPath}\n')
        f.write('python get-pip.py')
    try: subprocess.run(batPath, check = True) #check argument raises exception when an error occurs
    except Exception as ex:
        OUT += '\n error while installing pip:'
        OUT += '\n' + str(ex)
    else: 
        os.remove(batPath)
        OUT += '\n pip succesfully installed'
else: OUT = 'pip was already installed for this local Python environment'

installPackages = IN[0]
if installPackages:
    sys.path.append(os.path.join(localappdatapath, r'python-3.8.3-embed-amd64\Lib\site-packages'))
    for packageName in installPackages:
        spec = importlib.util.find_spec( packageName )
        if spec is None: 
            OUT += f'\n installing {packageName} in local Python environment: {dirPath}'
            batPath = os.path.join(localappdatapath,'Temp', packageName+'Install.bat')
            with open(batPath, 'w') as f:
                f.write(f'cd {dirPath}\n')
                f.write('.\Scripts\pip install '+packageName)
            try: subprocess.run(batPath, check = True) #check argument raises exception when an error occurs
            except Exception as ex:
                OUT += f'\n error while installing {packageName}:'
                OUT += '\n' + str(ex)
            else: 
                os.remove(batPath)
                OUT += f'\n{packageName} succesfully installed'
        else: OUT += f'\n{packageName} was already installed for this local Python environment'

and improved by the second submitter here:

# More info here
# https://github-wiki-see.page/m/DynamoDS/Dynamo/wiki/Customizing-Dynamo%27s-Python-3-installation
import sys
import clr
import System
import re
pyEngineName = sys.implementation.name 
if pyEngineName != "ironpython":
    reDir = System.IO.DirectoryInfo(re.__file__)
    path_py3_lib = reDir.Parent.Parent.FullName

    clr.AddReference("System.Windows.Forms")
    import System.Windows.Forms
    from System.Windows.Forms import MessageBox, MessageBoxButtons, MessageBoxIcon

    init_setup = False


    import platform, os, subprocess, importlib.util
    from System import Environment
    from System.Net import WebClient
    #
    # get paths
    assert os.path.isdir(path_py3_lib)
    pipDirPath = os.path.join(path_py3_lib, 'Scripts')
    pipfilePath = pipDirPath + "\\pip"
    get_pip_path = os.path.join(path_py3_lib, 'get-pip.py')
    site_packagepath = os.path.join(path_py3_lib, 'Lib\site-packages')
    #
    if not os.path.isfile(get_pip_path):
        client = WebClient()
        client.DownloadFile('https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py', get_pip_path)
    pthFilePath = os.path.join(path_py3_lib, 'python38._pth')
    assert os.path.isfile(pthFilePath)
    
    with open(pthFilePath, 'r+') as f:
        lines = f.readlines()
        if re.match(r'#import site', lines[-1]) is not None:
            lines[-1] = re.sub(r'#', '', lines[-1])
            f.writelines(lines)
    
    if not os.path.isdir(pipDirPath):
        print(f'installing pip in local Python environment: {path_py3_lib}')
        subprocess.Popen(["python", get_pip_path])
        # try to update pip
        try:
            #subprocess.run(['python', '-m', pipfilePath, 'install', '--upgrade pip'],  cwd = path_py3_lib)
            subprocess.Popen(["python", '-m', pipfilePath, 'install', '--upgrade pip'],  cwd = path_py3_lib)
        except Exception as ex:
            print(str(ex))
        init_setup = True
        MessageBox.Show("Initialization in Progress...\nWhen installation finished, close Dynamo and relaunch this script to install packages", "Initialization In Progress...", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Warning)
    else: 
        print('pip was already installed for this local Python environment')
        init_setup = False
    #
    installPackages = IN[0]
    if installPackages and not init_setup:
        sys.path.append(site_packagepath)
        for packageName in installPackages:
            spec = importlib.util.find_spec( packageName )
            if spec is None: 
                try:
                    subprocess.run([pipfilePath, 'install', '--target='+ site_packagepath, packageName], cwd = path_py3_lib)
                    print(f'{packageName} succesfully installed')
                except Exception as ex:
                    print(f'error while installing {packageName}')
                    print(str(ex))
            else:
                print(f"package {packageName} is already installed")

Copy the code above into a Python node and watch the magic unfold.

Entry 05: "Live NZ Power Grid Generation Visualizer"

Blurb:
Accesses the live data feed for power generation types currently being used in New Zealand and displays them as a colored ratio of the coastline.

DynamoComp05_DynamoConnect_EwanOpie_NZPowerGridGeneration.dyn (118.0 KB)

Rename the files below to remove the trailing .txt to access the CSV files for input:
NZ_Coast.csv.txt (279.3 KB)
NZ_Text.csv.txt (15.4 KB)

Entry 06: "Hywe connection for browser-based layout planning"

Blurb:
Hywe is an experimental browser-based layout planning tool. 3D masses corresponding to the layouts generated in Hywe are created in Dynamo by extracting relevant data from saved iterations of combinations generated on the webpage.

Hywe.dyn (9.8 KB)

[GavinNicholls]

Just realised I put my name in the screengrab of my script, oops - ah well! Some awesome entries here that definitely do more creative things than my just for fun idea.

Pip for Dynamo (Dip?) gets my vote, but all amazing ideas. Love the hexagrid UI.

[solamour]

Three days left at this post to vote, so come have your 2 cents

[solamour]

3… 2… 1… and we are done! Poll is closed, votes have been tallied and winners are now in. An absolute massive shout-out to all of you who entered; the entries were all fascinating ways of using Dynamo to connect to epic, interesting things Not only did you push yourselves, but the broader community can now learn from the way you do things, as you can now learn from the other entries! #rockOnEducation #inspirational

Without further ado, the dual winners are as follows:

In dual First Place we have @e.j.nap and @c.poupin with their submission Using Python in Dynamo to install Python in Dynamo, and @Daan for his DynaWeb Dynamo Forum Searcher. Congratulations to you all - please go and enjoy your swanky new forum badges “Dynamo Challenge Winner”!

As we’ve got dual winning entries in first place, we will not have a runner-up in this challenge.

For all the other participants who entered, a giant thank you for exploring how you could recreate this complex geometrical pattern using Dynamo! A huge shout-out to:

• @Menno_Mekes for his submission Dotbim file imported in Sketchup
• @GavinNicholls for his submission Windows text to speech personal programming buddy
• @Vikram_Subbaiah for his submission Hywe connection for browser-based layout planning
• @Ewan_Opie for his submission Live NZ Power Grid Generation Vizualizer.

So excited to have wrapped up the Challenges for now, but we will definitely be running them again!

[solamour]

@e.j.nap @c.poupin @Daan you can now set your new Forum Badges in your preferences to have a funky new title

[c.poupin]

Wow ! Thanks !

[solamour]

@c.poupin, @e.j.nap wanted you as co-author on the submission based on the thread where you both iterated and improved it #teamworkMakesTheDreamwork #givingBackGivesBack

[e.j.nap]

Thanks a lot, for the votes, the competition and the collaboration! Now if only it didn’t crash half my students’ computers. #worksonmymachine