Importing Geometry

There are several ways to import geometry into Dynamo. We've demonstrated importing meshes using Mesh Toolkit in the previous section - we can also import Solid models from .SAT files. With these processes, we can develop geometry in another platform, load it into Dynamo, and apply parametric operations through visual programming.

Another method for importing geometry uses a process called ATF Translation. In this case, we can import not just geometry, but a file's structure. For example, we can choose which layers of a .DWG to import rather than importing the entire model. We'll demonstrate this below in more detail.

Importing Geometry from a DWG file

Nodes for importing a DWG into the Dynamo environment are found under the Translation tab (Note: the these tools are only available in Dynamo Studio). The following examples show a series of components used to browse for a file, import the file contents, and convert it into usable Dynamo geometry. Dynamo also gives us the ability to filter and select specific objects to import from a DWG file - which we'll demonstrate below. For more information on Importing Geometry from a DWG File, read Ben Goh's blog post here.

Get Imported Objects

The simplest way to import DWG into Dynamo Studio is to import the entire file into the workspace:

1. Use the File Path component to browse for the DWG file to be imported into Dynamo.
2. Connect to FileLoader.FromPath to read the file.
3. Use the FileLoader.GetImportedObjects component to parse the geometry into Dynamo Studio.
4. ImportedObject.ConvertToGeometries will convert the objects into usable geometry in the Dyanamo workspace.

As shown in the above image, all types of geometry in the DWG file - surfaces, meshes, curves and lines - are imported into Dynamo.

Object Filter

To specify which geometries are imported from the DWG file, additional ObjectFilter nodes can be added to the definition. The ObjectFilter node is compatible with either a FileLoader or a list of ImportedObject, and outputs an ImportedObject list.

The following images show the conditional statements within each ObjectFilter node. Any ImportedObject that satisfies any of the listed conditions will pass through the filter. Filtering can be based on layer label (i.e. layer name), geometry type, diffuse color, etc., and can be used in conjunction with other filters to refine the selection.

1. Replace FileLoader.GetImportedObjects with ObjectFilter to search for specific conditions in the DWG file. – in this case only surface geometry will be imported, removing all curve and line geometry visible in the previous image.
2. Connect Filter to ImportedObject.ConvertToGeometries to import the filtered geometry.

By adding two filters with different conditional statements, we can divide the list of geometry into multiple streams:

1. Replace FileLoader.GetImportedObjects with two ObjectFilter modules of different conditional statements. This will separate the geometry from one file into two different streams.
2. Connect Filter to ImportedObject.ConvertToGeometries to import the filtered geometry.
3. Connect ImportedObject.ConvertToGeometries to Display.ByGeometryColor to visualize each stream in a different color.

Explicit Object Selection

The ObjectSelector node gives us an alternative method to importing objects from the DWG file. Instead of using filters, this method will give us the ability to choose specifically which objects and layers will be imported into Dynamo.

1. Replace FileLoader.GetImportedObjects with ObjectSelector to call for specific layers and objects within a DWG file.
2. Connect Filter to ImportedObject.ConvertToGeometries.