Scripting all projects to run an Add On

[Anonymous]

I'm sure this has come up before, but I am not finding any traces of previous conversations.

Is it possible to open projects from a list, one after the other, run an Add On, save and close the project, open the next one, ... until all projects on the list have been opened?

If so, is this done by an external utility, a batch file, functions within the API, ... ? If you point me in the right direction, I will figure it out. Right now, I'm not even sure where to start looking.

Thanks to all,

[Ralph Wessel]

AC24 has some additional Python scripting/JSON technology for external processing, but I don't think it can direct an add-on to do something.

We've written add-ons for an external process to direct an add-on to open, process and save a project - that involves a process similar to the GS tech but using XML rather than JSON, but same idea.

We've also written an add-on for some of our customers to automatically batch process multiple projects, although currently they just point at a parent directory and the add-on hunts through the directory and sub-directories opening, processing and saving projects it finds.

Could any of that be the basis for what you're after?

[Anonymous]

Hey Ralph,

Thanks for the quick reply.

The second idea is exactly where I am going with this - batch process multiple projects with the point and hunt approach to finding them. The first use of this batch tool is to provide current .pdf sets to our project managers every Monday morning. I envision hunting through folders, processing the creation of the .pdf file, and moving on to the next one.

I have written this kind of batch processing stuff before, but for AutoCAD. And I have made a dialog box appear from an Add-On just by opening an ArchiCAD project, so I suspect I can make the Add-On print a set of .pdf sheets without any hands on direction.

I figured I would confirm that the batch processing approach was even possible before I tackled the .pdf part of the puzzle.

Any insight you are willing to share is appreciated...