Using custom appearance libraries in add-ins

[nnikbin]

Hi Everyone,

My add-in (Fracture) has a custom appearance library. In current version of the add-in the appearance library is placed in resources folder under the add-in folder. To use this library, users should first open it in material browser which is a difficult task, because the path of the add-in's resources folder is too long. Regarding this issue, I have 2 questions:

1. Is there any method for opening an appearance library by code (to add it to MaterialLibraries object) ?
2. Are add-in packages able to install an appearance library beside Autodesk libraries?

Thanks,

Navid

[ekinsb]

Unfortunately, this is an oversight in the API and there isn't any support for custom libraries.  This is the first time this has come up, so we hadn't noticed it before. Thanks for pointing it out.  I've added it to our backlog. 

[nnikbin]

Hi Brian,

Many thanks for your prompt response.

[ekinsb · Accepted solution]

This has been resolved a couple of updates ago.  Here's some code that I used to test the new functionality:

def run(context):
    ui = None
    try:
        app = adsk.core.Application.get()
        ui = app.userInterface
        des = adsk.fusion.Design.cast(app.activeProduct)
        
        # Get the library.
        lib = app.materialLibraries.itemByName('BrianTest')
        if not lib:
            # Load it, since it isn't loaded.
            lib = app.materialLibraries.load('C:\Temp\BrianTest.adsklib')

        # Get the appearance named "Red"
        red = lib.appearances.itemByName('Red')
        
        # Copy the appearance into the active design so it can be used.
        des.appearances.addByCopy(red, red.name)
    except:
        if ui:
            ui.messageBox('Failed:\n{}'.format(traceback.format_exc()))

[nnikbin]

Hi @ekinsb

Many thanks for providing sample code