Scripting Applications with IronPython (ADAM, Revit, AutoCAD & Postsharp)

IronPython and the Dynamic Language Runtime make it almost ridiculously easy to add scripting to .NET applications.

In recent weeks several examples of using IronPython to add scripting or interactive shells to .NET applications have been posted by the .NET community:

• Command-line scripting of IronPython code in AutoCAD

This post was heavily inspired by the code presented by my old friend Albert Szilvasy during his excellent AU class on using .NET 4.0 with AutoCAD.
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In this post we’ll take Albert’s technique and implement a command-line interface for querying and executing IronPython script. This approach could also be adapted to work with other DLR languages such as IronRuby, of course.

Here’s the updated C# code which now not only implements PYLOAD functionality, but also a PYEXEC command.

•  Scriptability via the DLR and PostSharp

 Making an application scriptable (particularly in a static language) has historically been difficult. With the advent of the DLR (Dynamic Language Runtime) on the .NET platform it becomes almost trivial to add scripting support to any application. For a recent project I needed the ability to add scripting hooks throughout the application and coupling the DLR with PostSharp AOP attributes made this effort pretty straightforward. Here’s how it was done.

• Revit Python Shell
• Introducing RevitPythonShell
  

According to wikipedia: "Autodesk Revit is Building Information Modeling software for Microsoft Windows, currently developed by Autodesk, which allows the user to design with parametric modeling and drafting elements.  Building Information Modeling is a Computer Aided Design (CAD) paradigm that allows for intelligent, 3D and parametric object-based design."

Jeremy Tavik blogs about working with the Revit API, and in this post he discusses a Python Shell for Revit that created by Daren Thomas with IronPython:

Daren Thomas of the Professur für Gebäudetechnik, Institut für Hochbautechnik at the technical university ETH Zürich has published a Python Shell for Revit. It was implemented using IronPython and is used to automate the running of daily tests of a building energy analysis package. Hosting IronPython via a Revit plug-in is a now solved problem. Daren's intention is to continue publishing samples of what you can do with it pretty regularly in the future.

The source code is available under the GNU General Public License v3 from a Subversion repository on code.google.com. It is documented, though there is currently little other stand-alone documentation. One would probably want to look for the IExternalApplication entry point and go from there. What the application does is:

Add a button to the Revit ribbon to start the python shell.
Execute a python script entered in a text box, with output going to a separate window.

Daren describes one of the main scripts like this: it "will open up an interactive interpreter loop known as a REPL that will let you explore the Revit API. And by explore, I mean type a statement, hit enter, see the results, carry on. It doesn't get easier as this!"

• Scripting ADAM with IronPython

IronPython is an implementation of the Python language for the .NET framework, using the new Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) as language services layer on top of the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The DLR's reusable hosting model makes it extremely suitable to add scripting capabilities to existing products.

In this post we'll create an ADAM command line utility that will allow us to run IronPython scripts against an ADAM application.
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Our command line tool will expose a single command, RunScript, that will take in ADAM connection information and a path to a Python file to execute: