Changhing sections with ROBOT API seems slow

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

I'm working on an optimisation algorithm using robot steel design. The optimisation need to run a series of iterations including calculating the structure and chanding sections according to the results.

The first attemt of writing the algorithm seems promising and is still pretty basic, but I notice that the section changes is very time demanding.

Any suggestions to what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks in advance,

//Initialise robot
            RobotApplication robotApp = null;

            for (int try_count = 0; try_count < 5; try_count++)
            {
                try
                {
                    robotApp = new RobotApplication();
                    if (robotApp != null)
                    {
                        System.Console.WriteLine("Robot application found: " + robotApp.Project.Name);
                        break;
                    }
                }
                catch
                {
                    robotApp = null;
                    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(100);  //  Sleep for 1/10 second to allow Robot to wake up
                }
            }
            if (robotApp == null)
            {
                System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("ERROR : Unable to open an instance of Robot\nRobot needs to be installed on your machine for this function to work");

            }

            IRobotStructure robotStructure = robotApp.Project.Structure;
            IRDimServer rDimServer;
            RDimStream rDimStream;
            IRDimCalcEngine rDimCalcEngine;

            rDimServer = (IRDimServer)robotApp.Kernel.GetExtension("RDimServer");
            rDimStream = rDimServer.Connection.GetStream();
            rDimServer.Mode = IRDimServerMode.I_DSM_STEEL;
            rDimCalcEngine = rDimServer.CalculEngine;
            IRDimCalcParam rDimCalcParam;
            rDimCalcParam = rDimCalcEngine.GetCalcParam();
            rDimStream.WriteText("2");
            rDimCalcParam.SetLoadsList(rDimStream);
            rDimStream.Clear();



            //Populate section list
            List<string> sectionNames = new List<string>();
            IRobotNamesArray inames = robotApp.Project.Structure.Labels.GetAvailableNames(IRobotLabelType.I_LT_BAR_SECTION);
            for (int i = 1; i < inames.Count; ++i)
            {
                sectionNames.Add(inames.Get(i));
            }
            sectionNames.Sort();
            for (int i = 0; i < sectionNames.Count; ++i)
            {
                System.Console.WriteLine(sectionNames[i]);
            }
            int numIter = 5;
            for (int iter = 0; iter < numIter; iter++)
            {

                //Calculate
                RobotCalcEngine calcEngine = robotApp.Project.CalcEngine;
                calcEngine.Calculate();
                rDimCalcEngine.SetCalcParam(rDimCalcParam);
                rDimCalcEngine.Solve(null);

                //Get results
                IRDimAllRes rDimAllRes;
                IRDimAllResObjectType rDimAllResObjectType;
                int usrNo;
                rDimAllRes = rDimCalcEngine.Results();
                rDimAllResObjectType = rDimAllRes.ObjectsType;
                int objectCount = rDimAllRes.ObjectsCount;

                for (int i = 0; i < objectCount; i++)
                {
                    usrNo = rDimAllRes.ObjectUsrNo(i);
                    IRDimDetailedRes rDimDetailedRes;
                    rDimDetailedRes = (IRDimDetailedRes)rDimAllRes.Get(usrNo);
                    double ratio = rDimDetailedRes.Ratio;


                    //Toggle sections
                    IRobotBar robotBar;
                    IRobotLabel robotLabel;
                    robotBar = (IRobotBar)robotStructure.Bars.Get(usrNo);
                    robotLabel = robotBar.GetLabel(IRobotLabelType.I_LT_BAR_SECTION);
                    IRobotBarSectionData robotBarSectionData;
                    robotBarSectionData = (IRobotBarSectionData)robotLabel.Data;
                    string sectionName = robotBarSectionData.Name;
                    int sectionIndex = sectionNames.IndexOf(sectionName);

                    if (ratio > 1)
                    {
                        if (sectionIndex != sectionNames.Count - 1)
                            robotBar.SetSection(sectionNames[sectionIndex + 1], false);
                    }
                    else if (ratio < 1)
                    {
                        if (sectionIndex != 0)
                            robotBar.SetSection(sectionNames[sectionIndex - 1], false);
                    }

                }

            }

[Rafal.Gaweda]

Check this thread:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Robot-Structural/Creating-DLL-for-API-and-making-it-available...

Find there files. This is the fastest access to robot thru API.

I will check your code later.