Mechanism Viewer Tutorial (Python 3)
Name | Location |
---|---|
Mechanism Viewer | <Vortex Studio Installation Folder>\tutorials\Python\Vortex\PyMechanismViewer\MechanismViewer.py |
This tutorial provide an example of creating a custom Vortex, akin to simapp.exe in python.
This application is meant to run as a standalone Vortex application.
It shows how to create a simple VxApplication and load content.
It also shows how to create an application setup in code.
It is the python 3 equivalent of the C++ Mechanism Viewer Tutorial without the additional keyboard extensions. These extensions cannot be written in python but they could be moved to a plugin and added to a setup.
Application
The application support 4 commands line arguments:
- --help : explains how to use it
- --setup: The setup file for the application. If none is provided, one is created.
- --content: Content (scene, mechanism etc) to load. The user is invited to use a scene from the demo scenes package.
- Some mechanism can also be used, but a terrain must be provided of the object will fall forever.
- --light: Turn on a default light added at startup. Some content does not provide lighting
The main function creates a VxApplication, load a setup file or add some basic extensions and module. The setup will be saved as defaultConfig_PyMechanismViewer.vxc for reuse in the same folder of the executable.
It adds the callback to trigger the application to end when 3d windows are closed.
It adds a default Ambient white light to the simulator.
It then loads the content and run the application until closed.
See Integrating Vortex Studio using the SDK - Making an Application for more details about making a Vortex Application
See Writing Python 3 Applications using Vortex Studio for more details about using Python.
Using the tutorial
- For more information about the arguments, call the script with argument --help
- Run the script with the following:
- Provide a content file using argument –content, if none is provided, you will run an empty simulator.
- A setup file can be provided with --setup.
- If none is provided, one will be created to provide minimal functionality.Â
- It will be saved as defaultConfig_PyMechanismViewer.vxc in the same folder of the executable. Use the editor to inspect it.
- A good example would be to provide <Vortex Studio Installation Folder>\resources\config\simapp.vxc, which is a good example for a standalone Vortex process.
- If none is provided, one will be created to provide minimal functionality.Â
- Add --light to turn on the default light
- If the setup provides a main 3d view, the content should be visible.
- To go into detail, debug the project and follow the code execution step by step.