Some Snippets of Code - To be improved by the Community

[onekk]

In my recent work on some of my plugins, I've found some difficulties, so I'm wondering if a Collective CamBam Guide to plugin writing  is worth to be done.

Having seen that the documentation progress are very slow and (sadly) even CamBam is developed slowly, but having found that CamBam is a very good CAM, and more "friendly" to use related to some of the other product around (at least in the same range of price).

Managing the "logic" behind the "internals" of CamBam is sometimes weird as some "construct" are implemented using different types of Object List<> or even "Collection" of various types and not all the "methods" are implemented.

So in the Example Below these variable are used:
 

Code: [Select]

static ICADView view = CamBamUI.MainUI.ActiveView;
static CADFile myfile;


Speaking of some implementation notes;

There is an easy way to Add a Layer.

Code: [Select]

Layer retL = myfile.CreateLayer(l_name);
retL.Color = Color.FromName("colorname");
retL.Update();
view.RefreshView();

but to delete them is more "involuted" as there is no a "myfile.DeleteLayer(l_name)"

To delete a layer and all the entities that are present in it

(This piece of code don't show warnings when deleting entities)

Code: [Select]


myfile = view.CADFile;

// obiouvsly name is the layer name

if (myfile.HasLayer(name))
   {
        // Select as Active Layer the layer named "name"  
        myfile.SetActiveLayer(name);
        // Clear all Entities in the Active Layer
        myfile.ActiveLayer.Entities.Clear();
        // Layers is a "LayerCollection" object of myfile
        // We remove the Active Layer retrieved with "myfile.ActiveLayer" from the "LayerCollection"  
        myfile.Layers.Remove(myfile.ActiveLayer);
        //Set the Active layer to Layer[0] maybe a workaround but it works on almost all "palin" cases
        myfile.SetActiveLayer(myfile.Layers[0].Name);
      
    }


I see that this part of previous code is wrong, as it not set the default layer

Code: [Select]

// The Layer null is the default Layer i.e the Layer[0]
myfile.SetActiveLayer(null);


Let me see if this is useful.

Regards

Carlo D.
 

[EddyCurrent]

Carlo,

Have a read here first; http://www.cambam.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=4727.0

Then have a look here; http://www.atelier-des-fougeres.fr/Cambam/Aide/API%20Doc/menu/cambam_cad.html

My thoughts were to create an example code snippet for each method listed in the API

[dh42]

Hello

Other snippets here:

http://www.cambam.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=3878.0

I've added this page to the menu

++
David

[Garyhlucas]

I am not programming anything, YET, but I can see this as a really great idea for when I want to!

[onekk]

Thanks to all, I haven't noted the snippets in the APi, (Looked at it some months ago)

David For the snippets part I've missed it (Or maybe I don't remember to see it), how to contribute to the pages on ateliers..... ?

As a side note

Someone know hot to retrieve the Default Layer?

In the first version of the snippet code I've done some wrong assumption on "Layer name = null".

As the "Default Layer" name is changing between languages, how to retrieve the "default name" despite the language.

I'm assuming that setting it to Layer[0].Name will suffice, but if you move it in the treeview I don't know if the positional argument of "LayerCollection" is changed.

Someone may have found out this thing and could facilitate some research.

Regards to all and many thanks for answering.

Carlo D.

 

[EddyCurrent]

I think there is no such thing as "Default Layer" rather there are Layers and a Layer Collection with the properties shown in attached image.

If the Layer count is zero then I would assume that's the nearest thing to a default layer but it could have any "Name" if changed by the user.

[onekk]

I will use the "Layer[0].Name" as in the modified snippet, I have not tried to delete all layer and see what happens, maybe i will check this case.

But it is a "strange" user case, maybe some check whould resolve the weirdness if there will be any.

(The generally the message emitted if some layer is not found is "Layer "Name" not found" in the "log window").

Now I've some time to experiment many project (sadly not for money) but my Z axis is broken and the new axis is in transit from UK, so no "chips flying around".

Regards

Carlo D.

[dh42]

Hello

I will use the "Layer[0].Name" as in the modified snippet, I have not tried to delete all layer and see what happens, maybe i will check this case.

Maybe with the EnsureActiveLayer() ?

As the "Default Layer" name is changing between languages, how to retrieve the "default name" despite the language.

ActiveLayer.name (in CamBam.CAD.CADFile)

there is no default name as for Entities, so the layer name used as default is always dependent of the language.

how to contribute to the pages on ateliers..

Currently, the API website is abandoned because too difficult to maintain up to date with no info from Andy when something change and also because all the pages are done by hand ... so I prefer to add the snippets on the forum.

Another reason is that it is more convenient to search for a snippet with a title like "layer management" than to search in the API by classes to find an associated snippet ; ex: in the case of layer what we need are in CADfile, Layer, Layer collection ... and you need to know that ... not easy for beginners ...

Andy as started a GIT to handle CamBam resources and hopefully He will add a more convenient way to handle the API doc in the future.

++
David

[onekk]

Hoping of some work by Andy on Cambam, ok for the snippets part on this forum, let me see and eventually discuss on it between the guys on this forum that actively make plugins.

I'm intermittetly working on plugins, depending on my needs.

Actually I'm working on an improved version of Boxes, with some different boxes type.

But this has revelade to be a "long term project" as many rework of code is needed, and my memory isn't helping me, so I've to revise all my code to re-learn what I've done and most important why :-D.

Thanks and Regards

Carlo D.

[llaves]

Andy as started a GIT to handle CamBam resources and hopefully He will add a more convenient way to handle the API doc in the future.

Does this repository exist? If so, where?

 I found a Github ID CamBam, but it has no public repos.
Gitlab has a repo but it appears to contain the same info available on the CamBam website.

[dh42]

Hello

Does this repository exist? If so, where?

No, not yet

Currently there is only this page .. and it is not up to date I think ..

http://www.cambam.info/doc/api/

++
David

[llaves]

think there's any energy for a community-operated web page/repo?
Github makes it easy to host the pages and of course could be used for a repo for code examples.

[EddyCurrent]

think there's any energy for a community-operated web page/repo?

I don't think so, most people just want CamBam to generate gcode so they can make something on their cnc machine.
Writing plugins is something I do to keep my brain active, just for the fun of it. I'm able to control the code myself and that's how I like it.