Commandline Preference Management

The FreeCAD Preference Manipulation CLI Tool will be designed to streamline the customization of FreeCAD directly from the command line interface, eliminating the need for complex graphical interfaces. It will facilitate the management of FreeCAD's preferences, enabling users to perform various tasks such as modifying existing configurations, accessing preferences stored in files, and removing unnecessary settings. Whether users are adjusting preferences for personal use or system-wide configurations, this tool will offer comprehensive control. Users will be able to swiftly create tailored preferences and make precise adjustments without the inconvenience of additional GUIs, enhancing workflow efficiency.

Installation

Pre-requisites

1. Python 3.11+
2. FreeCAD installed and FreeCADCmd or freecadcmd commands available in the system path.

Installation

pip install git+https://github.com/HarshitaSaraswat/Commandline_Preference_Management.git

Autocomplete

If you want to activate autocomplete for the commandline tool, you can follow the below steps:

1. argcomplete package is installed with it but needs to be activated with the following command:

   activate-global-python-argcomplete

2. Add the line below to your .bashrc (or equivalent shell)

   eval "$(register-python-argcomplete freecad-preference-manager)"
   source ~/.bashrc

To Run

cd Commandline_Preference_Management
freecad-preference-manager arg1 arg2...

Use freecad-preference-manager -h to learn about all the available options in detail.

Usages

Different combinations of options can be used to execute different commands. These combilations are listed below:

• GetContent

  freecad-preference-manager list parameter_group_path

• ListPreferences

  freecad-preference-manager list parameter_group_path -d type_of_preference

• GetPreference

  freecad-preference-manager read parameter_group_path:preference_name

• AddPreference

  freecad-preference-manager create parameter_group_path:preference_name -d type_of_preference -v value_of_preference

• UpdatePreference

  freecad-preference-manager update parameter_group_path:preference_name -v value_of_preference

• DeletePreference

  freecad-preference-manager delete parameter_group_path:preference_name

Examples

The following example gives a simple demonstration of how to change the cursor of the python console in FreeCAD.

1. read preferences for PythonConsole:

freecad-preference-manager list BaseApp/Preferences/PythonConsole

output:

>>> [('Boolean', 'PythonWordWrap', True), ('Boolean', 'PythonBlockCursor', False), ('Boolean', 'SavePythonHistory', False)]

This command outputs the list of tuples for each preference present.

Tuple represents: (datatype, property name, value) (in that particular order)

2. update the value of PythonBlockCursor:

freecad-preference-manager update BaseApp/Preferences/PythonConsole:PythonBlockCursor -v true

3. create a new preference named InterpreterPath:

NOTE: creating a random preference would not have any effect in FreeCAD. InterpreterPath is such a preference which is used here just for giving example.

freecad-preference-manager create BaseApp/Preferences/PythonConsole:InterpreterPath -d String -v path/of/python.exe

4. read any particular value of the preference:

freecad-preference-manager read BaseApp/Preferences/PythonConsole:InterpreterPath

output:

>>> False

This command just returns the value or the provides preference name

5. listing all the Boolean preferences in BaseApp/Preferences/PythonConsole

freecad-preference-manager list BaseApp/Preferences/PythonConsole -d Bool

output:

>>> ['PythonWordWrap', 'PythonBlockCursor', 'SavePythonHistory']

This command returns a list of the names of the parameters

6. removing a parameter:

freecad-preference-manager delete BaseApp/Preferences/PythonConsole:InterpreterPath