General plugin (python?) support - especially for g-code

[eoffermann]

While plugins that could access the current geometry, g-code, process settings, etc., at various stages would be *extra* handy, probably the easiest to insert initially would be python or more generally shell command support to postprocess gcode before sending to the printer.

shell support would ideally provide a few wildcards mapped to various parameters, gcode could be written to a /tmp location and that path passed as an argument. While a full and flexible plugin API would be nifty, even just providing the ability to run a shell command and pass it some parameters would be enough for most gcode parsing purposes.

A much more broad API would be nice if it had access to Process Settings, current build platform geo, supports, etc. I'm currently manipulating process settings files externally - they're easy enough to parse, modify and rewrite, but being able to access the current process settings and modify them in programmatic ways, or create custom support structures or custom skirts, could open up powerful new functionality. I'm sure there are developers out there that would contribute alternate and custom infill patterns if hooks were available to do so.

[KeyboardWarrior]

I believe you may be able to do this by using the post-processing command-line in the Scripts tab. If your python program supports command line functions and can take in your G-Code file path as an argument, there shouldn't be an issue. In the post-processing section, you can use the placeholder for [output_filepath] for arguments.

**Python script should go in your installation folder for permissions issues

However, most of the custom processing I've needed for various things can be done with the variables/ IF statements in the Scripts tab:
http://forum.simplify3d.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1959