Objective:
Learn how to run your nTop notebook using nTop Automate (ntopcl) in Python scripts.
Applies to:
- Automating nTop notebooks for repeatable and intelligent workflows
- Interacting with external software suites and databases
Procedure:
- Prepare the nTop notebook and JSON input for running nTop Automate
- Python dictionary data can be saved as a JSON file using Python’s
jsonmodule -
Execute the nTop Automate process using Python’s
subprocessmodule -
Python Script_JSON.pywill run a Windows process command like"C:/Program Files/nTopology/nTop Platform/nTopCL.exe" -j input.json -o out.json SampleFile.ntop
- Check if the return messages are printed as below.
[info] Logging Engine started
[info] Login successful[info] Parasolid started
[info] Parasolid started
[info] nTop successfully built.
[info] Logout successful
Feel free to change this script to batch process your workflow by passing input lists in a For Loop!
#Imports import os import subprocess import json #Assuming this script, ntop file, and json files will be in the same folder Current_Directory = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath('__file__')) exePath = r"C:/Program Files/nTopology/nTopology/nTopCL.exe" #nTopCL path nTopFilePath = r"SampleFile.ntop" #nTop notebook file name Input_File_Name = "input.json" #JSON input file name to be saved as Output_File_Name = "out.json" #JSON output file name to be saved as #Input variables in JSON structure Inputs_JSON = { "inputs": [ { "name": "Output directory", "type": "text", "value": "C:\\Users\\Your Account\\Your Path\\" }, { "name": "Length", "type": "scalar", "values": 7, "units": "mm" }, { "name": "Width", "type": "scalar", "values": 2, "units": "mm" }, { "name": "Height", "type": "scalar", "values": 2, "units": "mm" } ] } #nTopCL arguments in a list Arguments = [exePath] #nTopCL path Arguments.append("-j") #json input argument Arguments.append(Input_File_Name) #json path Arguments.append("-o") #output argument Arguments.append(Output_File_Name) #output json path Arguments.append(nTopFilePath) #.ntop notebook file path #Creating in.json file with open(Input_File_Name, 'w') as outfile: json.dump(Inputs_JSON, outfile, indent=4) #nTopCL call with arguments print(" ".join(Arguments)) output,error = subprocess.Popen(Arguments,stdout = subprocess.PIPE,
stderr= subprocess.PIPE).communicate() #Print the return messages print(output.decode("utf-8"))
And that’s it! You’ve successfully run your Notebook using Python scripts.
Are you still having issues? Contact the support team, and we’ll be happy to help!