Invoking lisp code with .NET API

[fabrizio]

Hi,
is there anybody who's experienced in using the COM and .NET API? I am going to write a customization for Modeling and I am considering the option of using this API instead of (or togheter with) the lisp IKit, as I think that for this particular task, writing a .NET program could have some advantages.

In particular, do you know if there's a way to invoke a lisp command from a .NET addin? In the documentation I found an example of a lisp dialog calling a .NET function that returns a value back to the lisp code... but I could not find any reference to .NET code invoking a lisp function or dialog.

Thank you in advance,
Fabrizio

[fabrizio]

After digging deeper into the .NET API doc, I have found a method in the Application class that does exactly what I was looking for. The method is:

public virtual object SendCommand(string str);

The documentation of this method also reports an example:

app.SendCommand("(delete_3d :all_at_top)");

So I have developed a test addin and added a menu button that invokes the call above. The result is that all the 3D models in the current OSDM session are actually deleted, but neither the viewport nor the browser are refreshed after the execution of the command. So the impression is that the command has no effect; but as soon as I click on the viewport or resize the browser they are refreshed and I can see that all the 3D models have actually been deleted.

Does anyone have an idea (or maybe just a hint) for the reason of this strange behavior?

[Andy Poulsen]

Originally Posted by fabrizio

After digging deeper into the .NET API doc, I have found a method in the Application class that does exactly what I was looking for. The method is:

public virtual object SendCommand(string str);

The documentation of this method also reports an example:

app.SendCommand("(delete_3d :all_at_top)");

So I have developed a test addin and added a menu button that invokes the call above. The result is that all the 3D models in the current OSDM session are actually deleted, but neither the viewport nor the browser are refreshed after the execution of the command. So the impression is that the command has no effect; but as soon as I click on the viewport or resize the browser they are refreshed and I can see that all the 3D models have actually been deleted.

Does anyone have an idea (or maybe just a hint) for the reason of this strange behavior?

Thanks for the update -- I'm glad it's working for you! The updates sometimes don't happen until there's some sort of user action (as you noticed). You can sometimes fool the system into thinking there has been user action by just sending an empty string to Modeling. So, in this case, you could try something like

app.SendCommand("(oli:sd-put-buffer "")");

though you'd need to escape the double quotes inside, of course.

I hope this helps!

andy

[fabrizio]

Hello Andy,
thank you for your kind reply. As you suggested, I have tried to send an empty string to the command buffer after the execution of the delete_3d command. This actually causes the viewport and the browser to update. But there's another problem with this technique: after the UI is updated, the confirm and cancel icons appear in the upper-left corner of the viewport (with Modeling 18.1). In other words, a command apparently remains "pending" after the execution of this code.

So I came up to this solution (C#) that executes the command, updates the UI and doesn't leave any open command in the end:

app.SendCommand("(progn (delete_3d :all_at_top) (oli:sd-put-buffer \"complete\"))");

Thank you very much for pointing me in the right direction.

Fabrizio