Python for Plant 3D 2023

[Paul.Carson4JXY2]

I'm interested in pulling some information from a plant 3d drawing with python. So far I've been able to extract a few properties.

• ObjectName: (AcPpDb3dPipe)
• Service
• InsulationType
• InsulationThickness
• PnPClassName
• Layer

I'm really interested in the position x, y, z coordinates and center of gravity but cannot seem to get that information. I've tried a bunch of property names but they aren't working.

Is there a way to find out the property names available in Plant3D itself? I've checked the usual property menu when selecting a pipe but that didn't work.

Is this a restriction of Python not being .NET - if so is there a workaround for this with still using Python if possible?

It seems like it's so close because its picking up some properties but not all.

from pyautocad import Autocad
import comtypes.client

def get_all_properties(obj):
    return [prop for prop in dir(obj) if not prop.startswith('__')]

def safe_get_property(obj, prop_name):
    try:
        value = getattr(obj, prop_name)
        if isinstance(value, (tuple, list)) and len(value) == 3:
            return f"({value[0]}, {value[1]}, {value[2]})"
        return str(value)
    except Exception as e:
        return None


def explore_pipe_properties(pipe):
    properties = {}
    prop_list = [
        'ObjectName', 'Layer', 'Length', 'NominalDiameter', 'Material', 'LineNumber',
        'Service', 'InsulationType', 'InsulationThickness',
        'Position', 'EndPosition', 'CenterOfGravity',
        'Specification', 'Rating', 'OutsideDiameter', 'InsideDiameter', 'FlowDirection',
        'Temperature', 'Pressure', 'PaintColor', 'Slope', 'NB', 'PnPClassName', 'Position_X', 'PipeSpec'
    ]

    for prop in prop_list:
        value = safe_get_property(pipe, prop)
        if value is not None:
            properties[prop] = value

    return properties


# Connect to the running instance of AutoCAD
acad = Autocad()

if acad.doc:
    print(f"Connected to: {acad.doc.Name}")

    try:
        model_space = acad.model
        pipes = []

        for obj in model_space:
            obj_name = safe_get_property(obj, 'ObjectName')
            if obj_name == 'AcPpDb3dPipe':
                pipes.append(explore_pipe_properties(obj))


            if len(pipes) >= 100:
                break

        print(f"\nTotal AcPpDb3dPipe objects found: {len(pipes)}")

        if pipes:
            print("\nProperties found on AcPpDb3dPipe objects:")
            for prop, value in pipes[0].items():
                print(f"  {prop}: {value}")

            print("\nSample data for first 5 pipes:")
            for i, pipe in enumerate(pipes[:5], 1):
                print(f"\nPipe {i}:")
                for prop, value in pipe.items():
                    print(f"  {prop}: {value}")
        else:
            print("No AcPpDb3dPipe objects found in the drawing.")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"An error occurred: {str(e)}")
        print("If the error persists, you may need to check your AutoCAD Plant 3D settings.")
else:
    print("Failed to connect to AutoCAD")

[h_eger]

Dear @Paul.Carson4JXY2 ,

Python is only very rudimentarily supported in AutoCAD Plant 3D .
Therefore there is the SDK for AutoCAD Plant 3D

https://aps.autodesk.com/developer/overview/autocad-plant-3d-and-pid

[Paul.Carson4JXY2]

Ok thanks for the resource. Is that all in C# or is there VB or other languages to implement as well?

The end goal would be to have a button within Plant 3D preferably that would run a script and maybe connect to a sharepoint file to compare data.

[jabowabo]

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@Paul.Carson4JXY2 wrote:

Ok thanks for the resource. Is that all in C# or is there VB or other languages to implement as well?

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The .NET API can use C# or VB.net languages. You'll find much more help and sample code with C#. 

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@Paul.Carson4JXY2 wrote:

The end goal would be to have a button within Plant 3D preferably that would run a script and maybe connect to a sharepoint file to compare data.

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.NET would likely be the best tool for this. A little outside of the box, but if you really wanted to use Python, you could probably get the info you want from the SQL database.