What's a good way to run an external script from within a python script add-in?

[Anonymous]

Right now I have a simple python fusion add-in script that by itself works fine, but when I try to get it to trigger an external script to run I'm running into problems. I have tried calling both

os.system("python scriptpath")

and

exec(open(scriptpath).read())

but in both cases the add-in will fail to trigger these scripts. I've verified through textboxes that the add-in reaches both these commands and gets past them without crashing, but fails to actually trigger the external script. I have also tried moving the script from its original location to one within the Fusion Scripts directory, but that doesn't change the outcome. I'm a newbie to Fusion add-ins so any help would be appreciated. 

[goyals]

I just tried calling exec("app = adsk.core.Application.get()\nui = app.userInterface\nui.messageBox('Hi')") this from a script and it works for me.  May be you would like to check if there is some error happens in the script executed by exec function.

[Anonymous]

The script runs fine when I call it from the command line - do you think it's some dependency/directory issue with how fusion runs scripts? This isn't another autodesk API script, it's a custom script that takes a screenshot of the current window. 

[prainsberry]

Is there  reason to run it ass a separate script?  The way scripts/add-inss work in Fusion is a little different than the way you would normally execute a standard python script (with main, etc).  Is it possible to structure it slightly differently that your "other" script defines a function or class that you could import into this main one?  Then in the standalone version you could also call that function?  This should work no problem.  Alternatively if the "other" script was also an add-in that defined a command in Fusion, the first could cause the command in the "other" one to execute.  
I hope that makes sense?

[Anonymous]

I'm going to try that solution, although this is a test case for another, larger script that I'm hoping to run that generates a STL file that I would then import back to fusion. That separate script is fairly self-contained, and I was hoping to not have to rework it to fit into an Autodesk add-in format. 

[prainsberry]

You would not have to do any special formatting in that case.  This is very common practice in python scripts I've done and seen in Fusion.  It looks some thing like this:

my_addin.py

|-- stl_package

      |-- __init__.py

      |-- stl_module_1.py

      |-- stl_module_2.py

then you would say something like:

import adsk.core
import adsk.fusion

from ./stl_package import stl_module_1 
from ./stl_package import stl_module_2

# Later in your addin code:

result = stl_module_1.cool_stl_function(my_brep_body)

[Anonymous]

I am encountering the same problem -- I am trying to take a screenshot with pyautogui but it just does not work from the add-in script, hence I tried writing a separate script and running this from the add-in script. Still, no success.

Did you have any success with this?

[brad.bylls]

I am trying to run an external script from my add-in.

I have added to my add-in script:

import adsk.core, adsk.fusion, traceback

from .SHCS import shcs <<<<<  Added

from .FHSCS import fhscs <<<<<  Added

handlers = []

def run(context

    ui = None

    try:

        app = adsk.core.Application.get()

        ui  = app.userInterface

        cmdDefs = ui.commandDefinitions

========== More code

class ShcsExecuteHandler(adsk.core.CommandEventHandler

try:

    def __init__(self

        super().__init__()

    def notify(self, args

        eventArgs = adsk.core.CommandEventArgs.cast(args)

        # Code to react to the event.

        app = adsk.core.Application.get()

        ui  = app.userInterface

        gotoShcs = shcs() <<<<< Changed from a message box that works, so I know it gets here.

except:

        if ui:

            ui.messageBox('Failed:\n{}'.format(traceback.format_exc()))

========== Rest of the code

In the external script (SHCS.py which worked as a plain script) I have:

import adsk.core, adsk.fusion, traceback

import math, os

def shcs(): <<<<<  Added and tabbed over the rest of the code till end

    # Globals

    _app = adsk.core.Application.cast(None)

    _ui = adsk.core.UserInterface.cast(None)

    strUnits = ''

========== Rest of the code

While debugging, it goes thru the add-in script with no errors until:

        gotoShcs = shcs()

It then goes to core.py does a few things and then just sits there (in core.py) and does nothing.

I think I'm close from what I've seen in this thread, just can't figure it out.

I must be missing something.

[prainsberry]

Is anything happening in shcs() ?

If you are willing to share the code I can take a look. You can email me directly at patrick.rainsberry_at_autodesk.com