What is Scripting?
Scripting is a way of writing your own code to interact with the Pulsonix application and data. Although the functionality available in Pulsonix is very rich, there will sometimes be situations where you need to carry out a task or access specific details of design data that is not directly possible through the interface. Scripting can provide you with the possibility of doing that, without having to wait for new features or outputs to be created in the actual Pulsonix application.
Pulsonix Scripting API
Pulsonix provides an object-oriented Application Programming Interface (API) which other applications can use to interact with Pulsonix. This system enables more flexible scripting facilities than the now-deprecated ActiveX scripting solution, which is entirely separated from but similar in function to this API.
What can it do?
The API provides read and write access to a wide range of design and library data to external applications or scripts. It also provides control over the Pulsonix application, allowing you to invoke existing to commands. This functionality can be used to achieve many things, for example:
- Generation of custom reports or other outputs.
- Analysis of design data against rules not supported by Pulsonix.
- Generation and manipulation of designs and libraries.
- Creation of alternative user interfaces over Pulsonix functionality.
- Automation of design and library validation and modification.
System interface
Pulsonix exposes it’s API through Windows Named Pipes, a generic inter-process communication mechanism. To make API requests, you can connect to this named pipe using a programming language or framework of your choice. This establishes a client-server relationship between your application and Pulsonix.
Documentation on how to communicate with the API is available to help with creating custom API clients.
Python 3.10+ scripting support
Although the Scripting API can be accessed from many programming languages, Pulsonix provides strong support for using it to write Python scripts. For more information on this, see Getting started with Python scripting.
Scripting Dashboard
The Scripting Dashboard dialog can be used to control how Pulsonix hosts the scripting API and to set up Python scripting.
Related Topics
Scripting Dashboard | Scripting FAQ | API Interaction | Getting started with Python scripting