Exporting STEP without GUI module?

[danidr]

Hello everyone,

I found some discrepancies between Import and ImportGui relative to file structure.
I am calling FreeCAD from a Python script to generate drawings in a server environment, without GUI, and I'd rather keep it so, without resorting to xvfb (because startup time and resources usage would increase exponentially).
Now, I want to export whatever drawing I am generating with a wrapping App::Part. I do this programmatically, with the following lines, where __objs__ is the list of Bodies I want to export:

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root = FreeCAD.ActiveDocument.addObject('App::Part', 'Root')
root.Label = 'RootLabel'
root.addObjects(__objs__)

Then, I do the following to export such "root" object as STEP:

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import Import
Import.export([root], "<path>.step"))

From which I get:
'RootLabel' is not a shape, export will be ignored.

Of course, the same exact command through ImportGui works perfectly:

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import ImportGui
ImportGui.export([root], "<path>.step"))

Anyone have an idea about how to resolve this?
Thank you,

Daniel

[openBrain]

What is your version ? Both Import & ImportGui work fine for me (but I tested only in the Gui environment).
Do you perform a recompute before exporting ?
Normally a Part doesn't have a real shape but a virtual one composed by its top child objects. Maybe this is why it fails. You could try to use a Part/Compound rather than a Part container.

[danidr]

Sorry for the veeeeery late reply to my own thread...
I use FreeCAD 0.18.4. Yes, I do perform a recompute before exporting, to update all the parameters in the different features.
The idea of using a Part (with all children objects) is to keep the hierarchy of the file in the exported STEP... unless there's an easier method, this is the only way I found.
Thanks for the answer in the meanwhile!

[openBrain]

Could you try with latest FreeCAD 0.19, and eventually post a sample file for testing purpose if you still don't succeed ?

[danidr]

Could you try with latest FreeCAD 0.19, and eventually post a sample file for testing purpose if you still don't succeed ?

Sure, thank you; I will try ASAP. Keep in mind I do this from a PY script, not from the GUI, that may be why.

[demonlibra]

remove the character <)> at the end

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import ImportGui
ImportGui.export([root], "<path>.step"))

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import ImportGui
ImportGui.export([root], "<path>.step")

[onekk]

...

Hello, You answering a two years old post, are you aware of this?

Probably something is different from 2020 as FC is evolving, and maybe the original poster has found a solution or gave up some time ago.

Regards

Carlo D.