Dynamo Sandbox

caution

This guide is only relevant for Dynamo Sandbox, not to be confused with the Dynamo plugin for Revit!

tip

This guide provides the basis information about our Dynamo Sandbox integration.

If you setup this integration for the first time, we recommend to follow the Dynamo tutorial.

A dynamo module has been developed by VIKTOR which can be used for easy updating of Dynamo input files and processing output files (results + geometry). With the Generic worker you will also be able to completely automate an integration with Dynamo Sandbox. You can install the generic worker using these instructions.

Updating a model

An existing Dynamo model can be passed to VIKTOR's DynamoFile as shown below. With the update method, the value of input nodes can be updated. When all inputs have been updated as desired, the generate method can be used to generate an updated File object.

import viktor as vkt

file = vkt.File.from_path("template.dyn")
dyn_file = vkt.dynamo.DynamoFile(file)

# update input nodes
radius = params.radius
dyn_file.update('Radius', radius)  # input node called "Radius"
...

# generate updated file
input_file = dyn_file.generate()

Running an analysis

Integrating with Dynamo Sandbox can be done using the GenericAnalysis class (worker required):

from io import BytesIO
import viktor as vkt

files = [
    ('input.dyn', input_file),
]

# run the analysis
generic_analysis = vkt.external.GenericAnalysis(
    files=files, executable_key="dynamo", output_filenames=["output.xml", "geometry.json"]
)
generic_analysis.execute(timeout=60)

The executable_key in the example above refers to the "dynamo" command. This command should also be specified in the configuration file on the server, located in the same directory as the worker. By pointing to the file location of DynamoWPFCLI.exe (Dynamo Sandbox command-line interface), the Dynamo Sandbox integration can be established. With additional arguments we can specify where the input model is located and where the results should be exported to.

See the Dynamo Sandbox documentation for more info on running Dynamo from the command-line.

config.yaml

executables:
  dynamo:
    path: 'C:\path\to\DynamoSandbox\DynamoWPFCLI.exe'
    arguments:
      - '-o'
      - 'input.dyn'
      - '-v'
      - 'output.xml'
maxParallelProcesses: 1

Geometry can also be exported, for which an installation of either "FormIt" or "Revit" is required:

    arguments:
    ...
    - '-gp'
    - 'C:\Program Files\Autodesk\FormIt'  # or Revit
    - '-g'
    - 'geometry.json'

Processing results

After running the analysis, the output file (.xml) can be obtained using:

output_file = generic_analysis.get_output_file("output.xml", as_file=True)

With the as_file flag, VIKTOR is instructed to return a File object which can directly be passed to the get_dynamo_result function. The results can then be obtained by node id, which corresponds to the same node id as the input file.

import viktor as vkt

dyn_file = vkt.dynamo.DynamoFile(file)
...
output_id = dyn_file.get_node_id("Area")  # output node called "Area"
with output_file.open_binary() as f:
    result = vkt.dynamo.get_dynamo_result(f, id_=output_id)

note

Results will be returned as str type, which means you will need to take care of conversions in the app.

Processing geometry

In a similar matter the geometry file can be obtained after the analysis has been performed. With the helper function convert_geometry_to_glb, you can convert it to a GLB type file, which can directly be visualized in a GeometryResult.

import viktor as vkt

@vkt.GeometryView(...)
def geometry_view(self, params, **kwargs):
    ...
    geometry_file = generic_analysis.get_output_file('geometry.json', as_file=True)
    glb_file = vkt.dynamo.convert_geometry_to_glb(geometry_file)
    return vkt.GeometryResult(glb_file)

Testing

New in v13.5.0

mock_GenericAnalysis decorator for easier testing of GenericAnalysis

GenericAnalysis.execute needs to be mocked within the context of (automated) testing.

The viktor.testing module provides the mock_GenericAnalysis decorator that facilitate mocking of workers:

import unittest

from viktor import File
from viktor.testing import mock_GenericAnalysis

from app.my_entity_type.controller import MyEntityTypeController

class TestMyEntityTypeController(unittest.TestCase):

    @mock_GenericAnalysis(get_output_file={
        'result.xml': File.from_path('test_file.xml'),  # <name>: <File>
        'result.json': File.from_path('test_file.json'),
        ...
    })
    def test_generic_analysis(self):
        MyEntityTypeController().generic_analysis()

For the decorator's input parameters the following holds:

• If a Sequence type is provided, the next entry is returned for each corresponding method call. When a call is performed on a depleted iterable, an Exception is raised.
• If a single object is provided, the object is returned each time the corresponding method is called (endlessly).
• If None is provided (default), a default File/BytesIO object (with empty content) is returned each time the corresponding method is called (endlessly).