WireX - Python 3 Compatibility Update

Introduction

WireX is a software library originally developed by Andreas Pott for the analysis and synthesis of cable-driven parallel robots. This README outlines the changes made to update the original WireX project for compatibility with Python 3.

Purpose

Why not just use older python? - What's the fun in that, I needed a copy of the repo for work on my capstone project and thought why not try and see if I can change the whole thing to work with a newer/different versions of python, turns out it was quite easy! and also it was interesting exploring how the project was constructed as I planned to develop my own specific software to run my capstone.

Changes

The project has been updated to support Python 3, reflecting the discontinuation of support for Python 2. Below is a summary of the key changes:

Python C API Adjustments

• Replaced all Python 2 specific API calls with Python 3 equivalents.
• Updated module initialization to use PyModuleDef and PyInit functions.
• Changed the way strings are handled to accommodate Python 3's Unicode strings.

Code Modernization

• Improved error handling to be more in line with Python 3 standards.

Build System

• Modified the build scripts and instructions to be compatible with Python 3 environments.
• Updated dependency information to ensure all libraries are compatible with Python 3.

Installation and Usage

To install and use the updated WireX library, follow these steps:

1. Ensure you have Python 3.6 or higher installed.
2. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/gldkhoward/WireX.git

3. Build the project (adjust commands as necessary):

   cd wirex-master
   cmake .
   make

4. Test the installation:

   cd WiPy
   python
   > import WiPy

where the last command is entered without the > on the interactive python command line. The following can be used to test the lib:

> WiPy.Irobot.applyModel("IPAnema1Design")
True
> WiPy.Iws.calculateWorkspace()
True
> WiPy.Iws.calculateWorkspaceProperties()
{'volume': 5.731436529861277, 'surface': 17.789244457956457, 'CoI': (-4.2978881874605485e-17, -9.988050013112543e-18, 1.0000000000000002)}

where lines without the > are the expected response

Changes for Different Python versions

Different version can probably be accomadated idk, things to change:

• Line 40 in WireLibPyBindings.h #include <python3.10/Python.h> -> your version
• Line 43 in WiPy/pyBindings.h #include <python3.10/Python.h> -> your version

Further Details

The details above cover the very simple changes made to the existing project, for further information refer to the readMe within the project or the following:

• WireX Repo
• WireX Presentation