Embedding FreeCADGui

You already know that you can import the FreeCAD module into a python application, and use all its tools from the host application. But the FreeCAD User Interface (GUI) can also be imported as a python module. Normally you can only import the complete interface as a whole, not pieces of it. That is because the FreeCAD interface system is not only made of independent widgets and toolbars, but is a complex construction where several invisible components (such as the selection system, etc) are needed for the main 3D view to be able to function.

But, with a bit of hacking, it is possible to import the whole FreeCAD interface, then move the 3D view from it to your own Qt application. We show here 3 different methods.

Using the FreeCAD 3D view widget directly
Be aware that there are a lot of problems with this approach. The Qt event handling doesn't seem to work (no idea why) and if you use the 3d view's context-menu the application crashes. A better way could be to create your own 3d view SoQtExaminerViewer or SoQtViewer and "push" the content of FreeCAD's 3d view to your view, as shown in the other sections below.

First, get the main window via PyQt:

from PyQt4 import QtGui from PyQt4 import QtCore def getMainWindow: toplevel = QtGui.qApp.topLevelWidgets for i in toplevel: if i.metaObject.className == "Gui::MainWindow": return i      raise Exception("No main window found") mw=getMainWindow

Then get the View3DInventor view the same way:

def get3dview(mw): childs=mw.findChildren(QtGui.QMainWindow) for i in childs: if i.metaObject.className=="Gui::View3DInventor": return i         return None v=get3dview(mw)

The following code is generated automatically, by creating a Ui-file with QtDesigner, and converting it to python code with the pyuic tool:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*- # Form implementation generated from reading ui file 'mainwindow.ui' #   # Created: Sun Dec 27 11:18:56 2009 #     by: PyQt4 UI code generator 4.6 #   # WARNING! All changes made in this file will be lost! from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui class Ui_MainWindow(object): def setupUi(self, MainWindow): MainWindow.setObjectName("MainWindow") MainWindow.resize(508, 436) self.centralwidget = QtGui.QWidget(MainWindow) self.centralwidget.setObjectName("centralwidget") self.gridLayout = QtGui.QGridLayout(self.centralwidget) self.gridLayout.setObjectName("gridLayout") self.mdiArea = QtGui.QMdiArea(self.centralwidget) self.mdiArea.setViewMode(QtGui.QMdiArea.TabbedView) self.mdiArea.setTabPosition(QtGui.QTabWidget.South) self.mdiArea.setObjectName("mdiArea") self.gridLayout.addWidget(self.mdiArea, 0, 0, 1, 1) MainWindow.setCentralWidget(self.centralwidget) self.menubar = QtGui.QMenuBar(MainWindow) self.menubar.setGeometry(QtCore.QRect(0, 0, 508, 27)) self.menubar.setObjectName("menubar") MainWindow.setMenuBar(self.menubar) self.statusbar = QtGui.QStatusBar(MainWindow) self.statusbar.setObjectName("statusbar") MainWindow.setStatusBar(self.statusbar) self.retranslateUi(MainWindow) QtCore.QMetaObject.connectSlotsByName(MainWindow) def retranslateUi(self, MainWindow): MainWindow.setWindowTitle(QtGui.QApplication.translate("MainWindow", "MainWindow", None, QtGui.QApplication.UnicodeUTF8))

Then, create a main window that should be your application's main window, apply the UI setup above to it in order to add an MDI area and "move" our 3d view to it

ui=Ui_MainWindow my_mw=QtGui.QMainWindow ui.setupUi(my_mw) ui.mdiArea.addSubWindow(v) my_mw.show

Creating a soGui Examiner Viewer
Alternatively, you can also use the FreeCADGui module to extract a coin/openInventor representation of the objects of your scene, then use that coin data in an external viewer (your application). Here is an easy way to get the 3d representation of an object:

FreeCAD.activeDocument.addObject("Part::Box","myBox") s=FreeCADGui.activeDocument.getObject("myBox").toString # store as string from pivy import coin inp.setBuffer(s) myNode=coin.SoDB.readAll(inp) # restore from string

Then, create a standalone viewer with pivy:

from pivy.sogui import * from pivy.coin import * import sys def myViewer: # Initialize Coin. This returns a main window to use. # If unsuccessful, exit. myWindow = SoGui.init(sys.argv[0]) if myWindow == None: sys.exit(1) # Make an empty scene and add our node to it     scene = SoSeparator scene.addChild(myNode) # Create a viewer in which to see our scene graph. viewer = SoGuiExaminerViewer(myWindow) # Put our scene into viewer, change the title viewer.setSceneGraph(scene) viewer.setTitle("FreeCAD Object Viewer") viewer.show SoGui.show(myWindow) # Display main window SoGui.mainLoop    # Main Coin event loop

Then you just need to run your viewer:

myViewer

Using the quarter module
Instead of using the sogui viewer, you can also use the more modern quarter module. This is probably the best solution of the 3.

#!/usr/bin/env python ###   # Copyright (c) 2002-2008 Kongsberg SIM #   # Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any # purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above # copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. #   # THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES # WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF   # MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR # ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES # WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN   # ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF    # OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. #   import os    import sys from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui from PyQt4.QtGui import QMainWindow, QWorkspace, QAction, QFileDialog, QApplication from pivy.coin import SoInput, SoDB from pivy.quarter import QuarterWidget import FreeCAD, FreeCADGui def getMainWindow: toplevel = QtGui.qApp.topLevelWidgets for i in toplevel: if i.metaObject.className == "Gui::MainWindow": return i      raise Exception("No main window found") class MdiQuarterWidget(QuarterWidget): def __init__(self, parent, sharewidget): QuarterWidget.__init__(self, parent=parent, sharewidget=sharewidget) def loadFile(self, filename): in_ = SoInput if (in_.openFile(str(filename.toLatin1))): root = SoDB.readAll(in_) if (root): self.setSceneGraph(root) self.currentfile = filename self.setWindowTitle(filename) return True return False def currentFile(self): return self.currentfile def minimumSizeHint(self): return QtCore.QSize(640, 480) class MdiMainWindow(QMainWindow): def __init__(self, qApp): QMainWindow.__init__(self) self._firstwidget = None self._workspace = QWorkspace self.setCentralWidget(self._workspace) self.setAcceptDrops(True) self.setWindowTitle("Pivy Quarter MDI example") filemenu = self.menuBar.addMenu("&File") windowmenu = self.menuBar.addMenu("&Windows") fileopenaction = QAction("&Create Box", self) fileexitaction = QAction("E&xit", self) tileaction = QAction("Tile", self) cascadeaction = QAction("Cascade", self) filemenu.addAction(fileopenaction) filemenu.addAction(fileexitaction) windowmenu.addAction(tileaction) windowmenu.addAction(cascadeaction) self.connect(fileopenaction, QtCore.SIGNAL("triggered"), self.createBoxInFreeCAD) self.connect(fileexitaction, QtCore.SIGNAL("triggered"), QtGui.qApp.closeAllWindows) self.connect(tileaction, QtCore.SIGNAL("triggered"), self._workspace.tile) self.connect(cascadeaction, QtCore.SIGNAL("triggered"), self._workspace.cascade) windowmapper = QtCore.QSignalMapper(self) self.connect(windowmapper, QtCore.SIGNAL("mapped(QWidget *)"), self._workspace.setActiveWindow) self.dirname = os.curdir def dragEnterEvent(self, event): # just accept anything... event.acceptProposedAction def dropEvent(self, event): mimedata = event.mimeData if mimedata.hasUrls: path = mimedata.urls.takeFirst.path self.open_path(path) def closeEvent(self, event): self._workspace.closeAllWindows def open(self): self.open_path(QFileDialog.getOpenFileName(self, "", self.dirname)) def open_path(self, filename): self.dirname = os.path.dirname(str(filename.toLatin1)) if not filename.isEmpty: existing = self.findMdiChild(filename) if existing: self._workspace.setActiveWindow(existing) return child = self.createMdiChild if (child.loadFile(filename)): self.statusBar.showMessage("File loaded", 2000) child.show else: child.close def findMdiChild(self, filename): canonicalpath = QtCore.QFileInfo(filename).canonicalFilePath for window in self._workspace.windowList: mdiwidget = window if mdiwidget.currentFile == canonicalpath: return mdiwidget return 0; def createMdiChild(self): widget = MdiQuarterWidget(None, self._firstwidget) self._workspace.addWindow(widget) if not self._firstwidget: self._firstwidget = widget return widget def createBoxInFreeCAD(self): widget = MdiQuarterWidget(None, self._firstwidget) self._workspace.addWindow(widget) if not self._firstwidget: self._firstwidget = widget widget.show doc = FreeCAD.newDocument doc.addObject("Part::Box","myBox") iv_=FreeCADGui.getDocument(doc.Name).getObject("myBox").toString in_ = SoInput in_.setBuffer(iv_) root = SoDB.readAll(in_) if (root): widget.setSceneGraph(root) def main: app = QApplication(sys.argv) mdi = MdiMainWindow(app) mdi.show FreeCADGui.showMainWindow # setup the GUI stuff of FreeCAD mw=getMainWindow mw.hide # hide all if len(sys.argv)==2: mdi.open_path(QtCore.QString(sys.argv[1])) sys.exit(app.exec_) def show: mdi = MdiMainWindow(QtGui.qApp) mdi.show mw=getMainWindow #mw.hide # hide all if __name__ == '__main__': main

Without even firing up the FreeCAD Gui
Starting from FreeCAD rev2760, it is now possible to obtain the coin representation of any FreeCAD object without opening the main window. This makes it extremely easy to implement your own viewer and transparently have FreeCAD updating it. After importing the FreeCADGui module, you need to fire it up with the setupWithoutGUI method, after which you can use all of FreeCAD's view providers to obtain coin/openInventor nodes.

import os, sys, FreeCAD, FreeCADGui from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui from PyQt4.QtGui import QMainWindow, QWorkspace, QAction, QFileDialog, QApplication from pivy.coin import SoInput, SoDB, sogui class MdiMainWindow(QMainWindow): def __init__(self, qApp): QMainWindow.__init__(self) self._firstwidget = None self._workspace = QWorkspace self.setCentralWidget(self._workspace) self.setAcceptDrops(True) self.setWindowTitle("Pivy Quarter MDI example") self.viewers=[] filemenu = self.menuBar.addMenu("&File") windowmenu = self.menuBar.addMenu("&Windows") fileopenaction = QAction("&Create Box", self) fileexitaction = QAction("E&xit", self) tileaction = QAction("Tile", self) cascadeaction = QAction("Cascade", self) filemenu.addAction(fileopenaction) filemenu.addAction(fileexitaction) windowmenu.addAction(tileaction) windowmenu.addAction(cascadeaction) self.connect(fileopenaction, QtCore.SIGNAL("triggered"), self.createBoxInFreeCAD) self.connect(fileexitaction, QtCore.SIGNAL("triggered"), QtGui.qApp.closeAllWindows) self.connect(tileaction, QtCore.SIGNAL("triggered"), self._workspace.tile) self.connect(cascadeaction, QtCore.SIGNAL("triggered"), self._workspace.cascade) windowmapper = QtCore.QSignalMapper(self) self.connect(windowmapper, QtCore.SIGNAL("mapped(QWidget *)"), self._workspace.setActiveWindow) def closeEvent(self, event): self._workspace.closeAllWindows def createBoxInFreeCAD(self): widget = QtGui.QWidget(self._firstwidget) viewer = sogui.SoGuiExaminerViewer(widget) self._workspace.addWindow(widget) if not self._firstwidget: self._firstwidget = widget widget.show self.viewers.append(viewer) doc = FreeCAD.newDocument obj=doc.addObject("Part::Box","myBox") doc.recompute root=FreeCADGui.subgraphFromObject(obj) viewer.setSceneGraph(root) def main: app = QApplication(sys.argv) mdi = MdiMainWindow(app) mdi.show FreeCADGui.setupWithoutGUI sys.exit(app.exec_) if __name__ == '__main__': main

Or, if using pivy's sogui module doesn't work for you (the sogui module is becoming obsoleted and the coin developers are now favoring the new quarter library, which has much better interaction with qt), this is the same script but with using quarter:

#!/usr/bin/env python import os   import sys from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui from PyQt4.QtGui import QMainWindow, QWorkspace, QAction, QApplication from pivy.coin import SoInput, SoDB from pivy.quarter import QuarterWidget import FreeCADGui class MdiQuarterWidget(QuarterWidget): def __init__(self, parent, sharewidget): QuarterWidget.__init__(self, parent=parent, sharewidget=sharewidget) def minimumSizeHint(self): return QtCore.QSize(640, 480) class MdiMainWindow(QMainWindow): def __init__(self, qApp): QMainWindow.__init__(self) self._firstwidget = None self._workspace = QWorkspace self.setCentralWidget(self._workspace) self.setAcceptDrops(True) self.setWindowTitle("Pivy Quarter MDI example") filemenu = self.menuBar.addMenu("&File") windowmenu = self.menuBar.addMenu("&Windows") fileopenaction = QAction("&Create Box", self) fileexitaction = QAction("E&xit", self) tileaction = QAction("Tile", self) cascadeaction = QAction("Cascade", self) filemenu.addAction(fileopenaction) filemenu.addAction(fileexitaction) windowmenu.addAction(tileaction) windowmenu.addAction(cascadeaction) self.connect(fileopenaction, QtCore.SIGNAL("triggered"), self.createBoxInFreeCAD) self.connect(fileexitaction, QtCore.SIGNAL("triggered"), QtGui.qApp.closeAllWindows) self.connect(tileaction, QtCore.SIGNAL("triggered"), self._workspace.tile) self.connect(cascadeaction, QtCore.SIGNAL("triggered"), self._workspace.cascade) windowmapper = QtCore.QSignalMapper(self) self.connect(windowmapper, QtCore.SIGNAL("mapped(QWidget *)"), self._workspace.setActiveWindow) self.dirname = os.curdir def closeEvent(self, event): self._workspace.closeAllWindows def createBoxInFreeCAD(self): d=FreeCAD.newDocument o=d.addObject("Part::Box") d.recompute s=FreeCADGui.subgraphFromObject(o) child = self.createMdiChild child.show child.setSceneGraph(s) def createMdiChild(self): widget = MdiQuarterWidget(None, self._firstwidget) self._workspace.addWindow(widget) if not self._firstwidget: self._firstwidget = widget return widget def main: FreeCADGui.setupWithoutGUI app = QApplication(sys.argv) mdi = MdiMainWindow(app) mdi.show sys.exit(app.exec_) if __name__ == '__main__': main