Read binary data off Windows clipboard, in Blender (python) - python

EDIT: Figured THIS part out, but see 2nd post below for another question.
(a little backstory here, skip ahead for the TLDR :) )
I'm currently trying to write a few scripts for Blender to help improve the level creation workflow for a game that I play (Natural Selection 2). Currently, to move geometry from the level editor to Blender, I have to 1) Save a file from the editor as an .obj 2) import obj into blender, and make my changes. Then I 3) export to the game's level format using an exporter script I wrote, and 4) re-open the file in a new instance of the editor. 5) copy the level data from the new instance. 6) paste into the main level file. This is quite a pain to do, and quite clearly discourages even using the tool at all but for major edits. My idea for an improved workflow: 1) Copy data to clipboard in editor 2) Run importer script in Blender to load data. 3) Run exporter script in blender to save data. 4) Paste back into original file. This not only cuts out two whole steps in the tedious process, but also eliminates the need for extra files cluttering up my desktop. Currently though, I haven't found a way to read in clipboard data from the Windows clipboard into Blender... at least not without having to go through some really elaborate installation steps (eg install python 3.1, install pywin32, move x,y,z to the blender directory, uninstall python 3.1... etc...)
TLDR
I need help finding a way to write/read BINARY data to/from the clipboard in Blender. I'm not concerned about cross-platform capability -- the game tools are Windows only.
Ideally -- though obviously beggars can't be choosers here -- the solution would not make it too difficult to install the script for the layman. I'm (hopefully) not the only person who is going to be using this, so I'd like to keep the installation instructions as simple as possible. If there's a solution available in the python standard library, that'd be awesome!
Things I've looked at already/am looking at now
Pyperclip -- plaintext ONLY. I need to be able to read BINARY data off the clipboard.
pywin32 -- Kept getting missing DLL file errors, so I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. Need to take another stab at this, but the steps I had to take were pretty involved (see last sentence above TLDR section :) )
TKinter -- didn't read too far into this one as it seemed to only read plain-text.
ctypes -- actually just discovered this in the process of writing this post. Looks scary as hell, but I'll give it a shot.

Okay I finally got this working. Here's the code for those interested:
from ctypes import *
from binascii import hexlify
kernel32 = windll.kernel32
user32 = windll.user32
user32.OpenClipboard(0)
CF_SPARK = user32.RegisterClipboardFormatW("application/spark editor")
if user32.IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_SPARK):
data = user32.GetClipboardData(CF_SPARK)
size = kernel32.GlobalSize(data)
data_locked = kernel32.GlobalLock(data)
text = string_at(data_locked,size)
kernel32.GlobalUnlock(data)
else:
print('No spark data in clipboard!')
user32.CloseClipboard()

Welp... this is a new record for me (posting a question and almost immediately finding an answer).
For those interested, I found this: How do I read text from the (windows) clipboard from python?
It's exactly what I'm after... sort of. I used that code as a jumping-off point.
Instead of CF_TEXT = 1
I used CF_SPARK = user32.RegisterClipboardFormatW("application/spark editor")
Here's where I got that function name from: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms649049(v=vs.85).aspx
The 'W' is there because for whatever reason, Blender doesn't see the plain-old "RegisterClipboardFormat" function, you have to use "...FormatW" or "...FormatA". Not sure why that is. If somebody knows, I'd love to hear about it! :)
Anyways, haven't gotten it actually working yet: still need to find a way to break this "data" object up into bytes so I can actually work with it, but that shouldn't be too hard.
Scratch that, it's giving me quite a bit of difficulty.
Here's my code
from ctypes import *
from binascii import hexlify
kernel32 = windll.kernel32
user32 = windll.user32
user32.OpenClipboard(0)
CF_SPARK = user32.RegisterClipboardFormatW("application/spark editor")
if user32.IsClipboardFormatAvailable(CF_SPARK):
data = user32.GetClipboardData(CF_SPARK)
data_locked = kernel32.GlobalLock(data)
print(data_locked)
text = c_char_p(data_locked)
print(text)
print(hexlify(text))
kernel32.GlobalUnlock(data_locked)
else:
print('No spark data in clipboard!')
user32.CloseClipboard()
There aren't any errors, but the output is wrong. The line print(hexlify(text)) yields b'e0cb0c1100000000', when I should be getting something that's 946 bytes long, the first 4 of which should be 01 00 00 00. (Here's the clipboard data, saved out from InsideClipboard as a .bin file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bf8yhi1h5z5xvzv/testLevel.bin?dl=1 )

Related

How to read data from ".data" section of a process?

So, as far as I understand from looking online, the .data section of the PE file contains the static and global variables of the program.
All I am trying to do is create a variable in Python, or write something in notepad.exe, and look it up in its memory using the Win32 API.
What I have done:
I looked into the PE file structure of notepad.exe and found the virtual address of its .data section.
I attached to the running process and found its base address, and then added the virtual address of the .data section to that (is this the right calculation? If not, I would appreciate any learning resources, as I couldn't find much).
I tried to read about 1000 bytes, and I found some data. But when looking for hello (in hex, of course), it didn't find anything.
For the sake of POC and simplicity, I am using the Pymem module to make the Win32 API calls.
Here is my code:
import pymem
import pefile
process = pymem.Pymem('Notepad.exe')
process_module = list(process.list_modules())[0]
pe = pefile.PE(process_module.filename)
data_section = [x for x in pe.sections if b'.data' in x.Name][0]
section_address = process_module.lpBaseOfDll + data_section.VirtualAddress
section_size_to_scan = data_section.section_max_addr - data_section.section_min_addr
mem_dump = process.read_bytes(section_address, section_size_to_scan)
hello_in_hex = b'\x68\x65\x6c\x6c\x6f'
print(mem_dump)
print(hello_in_hex in mem_dump)
Obviously, the output is False.
Does anyone knows where I am making a mistake?

Use "Relink to File" button in Photoshop using Python

I would like to relink a Photoshop Smart Object to a new file using Python.
Here's a screenshot of the button that's used in Photoshop to perform this action - "Relink to File":
I've found some solutions in other programming languages but couldn't make them work in Python, here's one for example: Photoshop Scripting: Relink Smart Object
Editing Contents of a Smart Object would also be a good option, but I can't seem to figure that one out either.
Here's a screenshot of the button to Edit Contents of a Smart Object:
So far I have this:
import win32com.client
psApp = win32com.client.Dispatch('Photoshop.Application')
psDoc = psApp.Application.ActiveDocument
for layer in psDoc.layers:
if layer.kind == 17: # layer kind 17 is Smart Object
print(layer.name)
# here it should either "Relink to File" or "Edit Contents" of a Smart Object
I have figured out a workaround! I simply ran JavaScript in Python.
This is the code to Relink to File.... You could do a similar thing for Edit Contents but I haven't tried it yet, as relinking works better for me.
Keep in mind the new_img_path must be a raw string as far as I'm aware, for example:
new_img_path = r"C:\\Users\\miha\\someEpicPic.jpg"
import photoshop.api as ps
def js_relink(new_img_path):
jscode = r"""
var desc = new ActionDescriptor();
desc.putPath(stringIDToTypeID('null'), new File("{}"));
executeAction(stringIDToTypeID('placedLayerRelinkToFile'), desc, DialogModes.NO);
""".format(new_img_path)
JavaScript(jscode)
def JavaScript(js_code):
app = ps.Application()
app.doJavaScript(js_code)

Use imshow with Matlab Python engine

After building and installing the Python engine shipped with Matlab 2019b in Anaconda
(TestEnvironment) PS C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2019b\extern\engines\python> C:\Users\USER\Anaconda3\envs\TestEnvironment\python.exe .\setup.py build -b C:\Users\USER\MATLAB\build_temp install
for Python 3.7 I wrote a simple script to test a couple of features I'm interested in:
import matlab.engine as ml_e
# Start Matlab engine
eng = ml_e.start_matlab()
# Load MAT file into engine. The result is a dictionary
mat_file = "samples/lena.mat"
lenaMat = eng.load("samples/lena.mat")
print("Variables found in \"" + mat_file + "\"")
for key in lenaMat.keys():
print(key)
# print(lenaMat["lena512"])
# Use the variable from the MAT file to display it as an image
eng.imshow(lenaMat["lena512"], [])
I have a problem with imshow() (or any similar function that displays a figure in the Matlab GUI on the screen) namely that it shows quickly and then disappears, which - I guess - at least confirms that it is possible to use it. The only possibility to keep it on the screen is to add an infinite loop at the end:
while True:
continue
For obvious reasons this is not a good solution. I am not looking for a conversion of Matlab data to NumPy or similar and displaying it using matplotlib or similar third party libraries (I am aware that SciPy can load MAT files for example). The reason is simple - I would like to use Matlab (including loading whole environments) and for debugging purposes I'd like to be able to show this and that result without having to go through loops and hoops of converting the data manually.

Convert PNG to ZPL and print

I'm trying to convert an image to ZPl and then print the label to a 6.5*4cm label on a TLP 2844 zebra printer on Python.
My main problems are:
1.Converting the image
2.Printing from python to the zebra queue (I've honestly tried all the obvious printing packages like zebra0.5/ win32 print/ ZPL...)
Any help would be appreciated.
I had the same issue some weeks ago. I made a python script specifically for this printer, with some fields available. I commented (#) what does not involve your need, but left it in as you may find it helpful.
I also recommend that you set your printer to the EPL2 driver, and 5cm/s print speed. With this script you'll get the PNG previews with an EAN13 formatted barcode. (If you need other formats, you might need to hit the ZPL module docs.)
Please bear in mind that if you print with ZLP 2844, you will either need to use their paid software, or you will need to manually configure the whole printer.
import os
import zpl
#import pandas
#df= pandas.read_excel("Datos.xlsx")
#a=pandas.Series(df.GTIN.values,index=df.FINAL).to_dict()
for elem in a:
l = zpl.Label(15,25.5)
height = 0
l.origin(3,1)
l.write_text("CUIT: 30-11111111-7", char_height=2, char_width=2, line_width=40)
l.endorigin()
l.origin(2,5)
l.write_text("Art:", char_height=2, char_width=2, line_width=40)
l.endorigin()
l.origin(5.5,4)
l.write_text(elem, char_height=3, char_width=2.5, line_width=40)
l.endorigin()
l.origin(2, 7)
l.write_barcode(height=40, barcode_type='2', check_digit='N')
l.write_text(a[elem])
l.endorigin()
height += 8
l.origin(8.5, 13)
l.write_text('WILL S.A.', char_height=2, char_width=2, line_width=40)
l.endorigin()
print(l.dumpZPL())
lista.append(l.dumpZPL())
l.preview()
To print the previews without having to watch and confirm each preview, I ended up modifying the ZPL preview method, to return an IO variable so I can save it to a file.
fake_file = io.BytesIO(l.preview())
img = Image.open(fake_file)
img = img.save('tags/'+'name'+'.png')
On the Label.py from ZPL module (preview method):
#Image.open(io.BytesIO(res)).show(). <---- comment out the show, but add the return of the BytesIO
return res
I had similar issues and created a .net core application which takes an image and converts it to ZPL, either to a file or to the console so it's pipeable in bash scripts. You could package it with your python app call it as a subprocess like so:
output = subprocess.Popen(["zplify", "path/to/file.png"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE).communicate()[0]
Or feel free to use my code as a reference point and implement it in python.
Once you have a zpl file or stream you can send it directly to a printer using lpr if you're on linux. If on windows you can connect to a printer using it's IP address as shown in this stack overflow question
For what is worth and for anyone else reference, was facing a similar situation and came up with a solution. To whom it may help:
Converting the image?
After trying many libraries i came across ZPLGRF although it seems the demo is focused on PDF only, i found in the source that there is a from_image() class property that could convert from image to zpl combining it part of the demo/exaples. Full code description below
Printing from python to the zebra queue?
Many libraries again but i settled with ZEBRA seem to be the most straight forward one to send raw zpl to a zebra printer
CODE
from zplgrf import GRF
from zebra import Zebra
#Open the image file and generate ZPL from it
with open(path_to_your_image, 'rb') as img:
grf = GRF.from_image(img.read(), 'LABEL')
grf.optimise_barcodes()
zpl_code = grf.to_zpl
#Setup and print to Zebra Printer
z = Zebra()
#This will return a list of all the printers on a given machine as a list
#['printer1', 'printer2', ...]
z.getqueues()
#If or once u know the printer queue name then u can set it up with
z.setqueue('printer1')
#And now is ready to send the raw ZPL text
z.output(zpl_code )
The above i have tested successfully with a Zebra GX430t printer connected via USB in a Windows 11 machine.
Hope it helps

Binary file (Labview .DAT file) conversion using Python

I work in a lab where we acquire electrophysiological recordings (across 4 recording channels) using custom Labview VIs, which save the acquired data as a .DAT (binary) file. The analysis of these files can then be continued in more Labview VIs, however I would like to analyse all my recordings in Python. First, I need walk through all of my files and convert them out of binary!
I have tried numpy.fromfile (filename), but the numbers I get out make no sense to me:
array([ 3.44316221e-282, 1.58456331e+029, 1.73060724e-077, ...,
4.15038967e+262, -1.56447362e-090, 1.80454329e+070])
To try and get further I looked up the .DAT header format to understand how to grab the bytes and translate them - how many bytes the data is saved in etc:
http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/370859J-01/header/header/headerallghd_allgemein/
But I can't work out what to do. When I type "head filename" into terminal, below is what I see.
e.g. >> head 2014_04_10c1slice2_rest.DAT
DTL?
0???? ##????
empty array
PF?c ƀ????l?N?"1'.+?K13:13:27;0.00010000-08??t?޾??DY
??N?t?x???D?
?uv?tgD?~I??
??N?t?x>?n??
????t?x>?n??
????t?޾??D?
????t?x???D?
????t?x?~I??
????tgD>?n??
??N?tgD???D?
??N?t?x???D?
????t????DY
??N?t?x>?n??
??N?t????DY
?Kn$?t?????DY
??N?t??>?n??
??N?tgD>?n??
????t?x?~I??
????tgD>?n??
??N?tgD>?n??
??N?tgD???DY
????t?x???D?
????t???~I??
??N?tgD???DY
??N?tgD???D?
??N?t?޿~I??
??N?t?x???DY
??N?tF>?n??
??N?t?x??%Y
Any help or suggestions on what to do next would be really appreciated.
Thanks.
P.s. There is an old (broken) matlab file that seems to have been intended to convert these files. I think this could probably be helpful, but having spent a couple of days trying to understand it I am still stuck. http://www.mathworks.co.uk/matlabcentral/fileexchange/27195-load-labview-binary-data
Based on this link it looks like the following should do the trick:
binaryFile = open('Measurement_4.bin', mode='rb')
(data.offset,) = struct.unpack('>d', binaryFile.read(8))
Note that mode is set to 'rb' for binary.
With numpy you can directly do this as
data = numpy.fromfile('Measurement_4.bin', dtype='>d')
Please note that if you are just using Python as an intermediate and want to go back to LabVIEW with the data, you should instead use the function Read from Binary file.vi to read the binary file using native LabVIEW.
DAT is a pretty generic suffix, not necessarily something pointing to a specific format. If I'm understanding correctly, that help section is for DIAdem, which may be completely unrelated to how your data is saved from LV.
What you want is this help section, which tells you how LV flattens data to be stored on disk - http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361J-01/lvconcepts/flattened_data/
You will need to look at the LV code to see exactly what kind of data you're saving and how the write file function is configured (byte order, size prepending, etc.) and then use that document to translate it to the actual representation.

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