About Lua in Netfabb

Jump to:

• Introduction
• Supported Lua scope
• Scripting reference
• Lua script library
• Script examples

Introduction

Lua is Netfabb's method of choice to facilitate automation tasks inside the software, available in Netfabb Ultimate. One particular advantage is that, while not necessary, a Lua script may work on an entirely different project than currently loaded in Netfabb, if any.

Lua-automatable areas in Netfabb

1. Part operations on platforms, including machines
2. Slicing
3. Selective Space Structures (3S)

For the Lua reference on 3S, see the relevant section in Latticing.

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Supported Lua scope

Netfabb supports generally the version 5.1 of the Lua language definition, see: http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/

Of the Lua 5.1 standard, Netfabb supports the core language specification as well as selected libraries.

Lua Library	Support	Note
Base	Yes, with exceptions	Some exceptions: dofile: use system:executescriptfile() instead print: use system:log() instead. Remember to first set where the logging should go, with system:logtofile("c:\lualog.txt"); for example; otherwise the only place to follow logging output is the debugger.
Coroutine Manipulation	Yes
Modules	No	Use system:executescriptfile()
String manipulation	Yes
Table manipulation	Yes
Mathematical Functions	Yes
Input and output Facilities	No
Operating System Facilities	No
Debug library	No	For Lua in the Netfabb default module, also referred to as desktop automation, a debugger GUI is available.

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Scripting reference

The scripting reference lists all available objects, methods, and properties available in Netfabb's Lua implementation. It has its own section in the online help.

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Lua script library

To make Lua scripts available for execution within Netfabb they are stored in a library, that means loading them from files and storing them internally. The library resides in Netfabb's settings database. The library provides several functions:

• If running Lua scripts happens often during working with Netfabb, you can set any script in the library to appear in a dropdown menu in the toolbar.
  

  The icon in the toolbar makes Lua scripts readily available.

• The library provides a Debugger with which to have a closer look at the operation of a script. You can run each line at a time, observe variables, set breakpoints to halt execution at specified steps, and observe output written for logging purposes.
  

  Stepping through a script can help with identifying mistakes

• If Netfabb's settings database is made available on a network, the scripts become available for all connected Netfabb installations.

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Script examples

Netfabb includes a number of example scripts that demonstrate how to address a variety of tasks with Lua. These can be found in the library as well as at Examples\LUA Scripts in the Netfabb installation directory. Some of them require some modification like changing paths to meet your particular installation and paths.

Noteworthy examples are the scripts DemoApplication and DemoWorkflows. Both are full applications written in Lua and run within Netfabb. They implement a selection from the example scripts and make them available via GUI to demonstrate not only the use of such scripts but also how to implement a GUI to collate such functions. They are two of the default scripts loaded in the library.

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