Greg,
THANKS!!!
That was a big help. I searched all over but could not find any
information that I could understand that addressed this. I guess I
didn't know what to look for. Thank you for taking the time to write
this up.
On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 12:07 PM, Greg Antal <greg.an...@ata-e.com> wrote:
> Jim:
>
> The thing about the Femap API is that its class methods use tons of ByRef
> arguments to return data to the caller. This is not something Python really
> supports. PythonCOM gets around it by turning the output arguments in to
> return values, but I find that only works if I enforce early binding. Here's
> what I recommend:
>
> Run makepy on the "femap.tlb" and have it save the output to a file. I
> always call that file PyFemap.py.
> In your Python code, import this file along with all your other import
> statements: import PyFemap. If you look in PyFemap.py, you'll see that it
> imports all the win32com stuff it needs, so you don't have to do that
> yourself. Also, all the Femap stuff is now accessible by "early binding",
> and that is essential when dealing with those pesky return values.
> Access the femap model object like this: zFemap = PyFemap.model()
> Get the active view ID like this: iRet, iViewId =
> zFemap.feAppGetActiveView()
>
> Item 4 shows how an output argument in VB or C++ becomes a return value in
> Python. That happens with every method in the API that uses output
> arguments. The standard return code is always first in the list, followed by
> the output arguments in the order they appear in the VB argument list. See,
> for example, the output vector method "GetOutputList" which retrieves all
> the data in the output vector. In Python, the call looks like this:
> iRet, nVals, liIds, lrData = zOutVec.GetOutputList().
>
> The key thing in all this is to import that PyFemap file. When you do that,
> it's infinitely easier to use the Femap API in Python than it is in VB or
> C++. If you don't do it, you'll just never get it to work.
>
> - Greg Antal
>
> Gregory W. Antal
> Senior Technical Advisor
> ATA Engineering, Inc.
> 11995 El Camino Real, Suite 200
> San Diego, CA 92130
> www.ata-e.com
>
> greg.an...@ata-e.com
> 858-480-2072 (Phone)
> 858-792-8932 (Fax)
>
> Jim Ragsdale wrote, On 12/2/2010 6:59 AM:
>
> I am trying to access the femap API, and having a bit of trouble. Here
> is a simple example:
>
> from win32com.client import Dispatch
> femap = Dispatch("femap.model")
> rc = femap.feAppGetActiveView(
> viewID)
>
> This method, according to the documentation, is supposed to return a
> long integer in viewID. If I do not define viewID, python returns the
> error:
>
> NameError: name 'viewID' is not defined
>
> if I define viewID=0, python returns:
>
> com_error: (-2147352571, 'Type mismatch.', None, 1)
>
> I ran makepy and it generates a file, but I don't know if it is using
> it or not. In the file, I can find the definition for the method:
>
> def feAppGetActiveView(self, nViewID=pythoncom.Missing):
> return self._ApplyTypes_(20376, 1, (3, 0), ((16387, 2),),
> u'feAppGetActiveView', None,nViewID
> )
>
> To me it looks like win32 is not getting the information about the
> variable types from com. Is there any way to get around this or am I
> out of luck?
>
> Thanks,
> Jim
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