Command line and Visual Basic scripts

The software command line enables you to invoke Visual Basic (VB) scripts and macros from a command line user interface within software.

This capability, which is dynamic and extensible, allows you to run scripts that require you to provide parameters, and you can perform the following tasks:

• Modify existing scripts to better suit your needs, or extend them to add new capabilities
• Add new scripts containing multiple commands, which can be used just like the built-in commands that come with the software.

A list of commands is displayed when you type help at the command line.

Scripts or commands can take multiple command line arguments to provide parameters to be used when the script is running.

The name of a script is the prefix of the corresponding script file; for example, the command HCP corresponds to the Visual Basic script file HCP.vbs in the commands folder, which prints the active display window.

You can create new scripts using one of the following techniques:

• Record a macro and save it in a commands folder to create a script that takes no command line arguments. You can then modify or extend the recorded macro to provide new capabilities or to take command line arguments.
  Note: Macros that have been modified to take command line arguments can be launched only from the command line unless the script prompts for user input.
• Write scripts from scratch, which may or may not need parameters entered as command line arguments.

The command line will look for scripts stored in the default project directory, typically My Documents\My ASMI 20xx Projects\commands. If no script is found, it will look in C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Simulation Moldflow Synergy 20xx\data\commands (where xxxx is the software release).

Note: Not all functionality is accessible through the API. More functionality is accessible to scripts that are written by hand and run from the command line than to macros that are recorded and run from within the user interface.