pySwTools is a combination of tools that I made to help me with my workflow when working with Solidworks. Sometimes it is not directly link to SW but more to what I do with the CAD models.
You can directly install it from pypi:
pip install pySwTools
Or you can install it from this repository:
pip install .
If you are on windows, maybe the directory where the script is installed will not be on the PATH but it can be added to directly be able to use the script from a command prompt.
If you found a bug or if you have any idea for the project feel free to open a new issue on github ! And if you want to directly contribute, you are welcome.
List of ressources that can be helpful when starting with the solidworks API:
- CLI: handle all the modules
- Config: handle the configuration
- Ready-dxf: Prep the dxf outputed from SW to be laser cutted
- Copy-full-assembly: Update the relative link from an assembly after a copy
- Auto-export: export all the parts to
.stl
or.dxf
- Stat: List all the parts from an assembly with their mass and density
- Clean: List all the unused files from an assembly
It is the main module of this project. It allows you to select the actions that you want to apply. To directly get help from the tool simply type:
pyswtools
This command helps you handling your config. By default, the config is the following:
sw_version: 2022 # This is important to set the correct version
If you want to modify the config, you need to first create a file with :
pyswtools config init
And you can reset to the default config with:
pyswtools config init --force
If you want to get the current config:
pyswtools config dump
Or the path to the current config:
pyswtools config dump --path
Prepare dxf files from solidworks to be laser cutted:
- Remove the solidworks text from the output dxf file
You can use the following command:
pyswtools ready-dxf /path/to/file.dxf
It will output a clean.dxf
file.
You can also provide the path to a directory with dxf inside
pyswtools ready-dxf /path/to/directory
It will output a directory_cleaned
directory with all the cleaned dxf. Do not include the /
or \
at the end of the path of the directory
This tool help you when copying multiple file or assembly. It will help you by updating path reference to new path reference:
- In the equation manager
pyswtools copy-full-assembly PATH_TO_DIR SRC_REPLACE TARGET_REPLACE
PATH_TO_DIR
is the path to directory with all the files to updateSRC_REPLACE
is the string in the current path reference that you want to replace (probably the name of the old directory)TARGET_REPLACE
is the string in the current path reference that you want to replace (probably the name of the new directory)
This tool help you export a directory (or a part) to other file extensions. The current exrports are:
- DXF
- STL
- Auto
The Auto mode will use the name of the part and see if an extension is specified in it (e.g. DXF_my_part.SLDPRT
)
The DXF export will only work when there is only one body in the part. Also the face that will be exported is a planar one with the biggest surface.
The STL export will consider the z axis as being the vertical dimension.
pyswtools auto-export PATH/TO/DIR MODE
With Mode
being AUTO
, DXF
or STL
. It will create directory with the extension used and the corresponding files in it.
This tool help you get stat on an assembly. It can gives you recursive information about the mass and the density of each component of an assembly.
pyswtools stat PATH/TO/ASSEMBLY OPTIONS
You can select the display mode with --type-output
:
tree
: (default) It will follow the structure from the assembly filelist
: It will output to a single list
You can select the sort mode with --type-sort
:
mass
: (default) sort with a decreasing total massmass-part
: sort with a decreasing part massname
: sort with alphabetical order
You can get only the elements with a default density (1000 Kg/m³) with the option --only-default-density
. This option only works with a type
list`
This tool help you clean the directory of your project and remove unused files
pyswtools clean PATH/TO/DIR/PROJECT/ PATH/TO/MAIN/ASSEMBLY
It will output all the solidworks files in PATH/TO/DIR/PROJECT/
that are not used in the assembly.