OneCAD-Simulation/docs/control-protocol.md

Control protocol

modelcraft --control PORT (or MODELCRAFT_CONTROL_PORT=PORT) listens on 127.0.0.1:PORT for JSON lines. Each request is one line {"id": …, "method": "…", "params": {…}}; each reply is one line {"id": …, "ok": true, "result": …} or {"id": …, "ok": false, "error": "…"}. Requests are handled on the UI thread between frames; pointer and keyboard input is injected as real egui events, one pointer event per frame. The protocol has the same shape as SolidCraft's.

modelcraft --sample --control 7070          # or --sample cantilever | impact
{"id":1,"method":"engine.execute","params":{"command":"model.info","params":{}}}
→ {"id":1,"ok":true,"result":{"elements":{"hex8":64,"tet4":162},"nodes":199}}
{"id":2,"method":"ui.render","params":{"path":"/tmp/model.png","width":900,"height":600}}

The channel is untrusted input. A request line may be at most 16 MiB; a longer one is answered with {"ok": false, "error": "request too large"} and the connection is closed, as are connections that send eight lines that are not JSON. At most 16 connections are served at once, at most 64 queued requests run per frame so a flood cannot starve drawing, and a request the UI thread has not answered within 60 seconds gets {"ok": false, "error": "timeout"}. Numbers are checked and clamped (drag steps, wheel lines, window size); ui.render refuses an image size out of range.

Engine

Method	Params	Result
engine.execute	command: command id, params: JSON object	the command's result
engine.script	commands: [{command, params}, …]	stops at the first error; journal: commands that changed the model so far
engine.commands	—	every command: id, label, params (the parameter documentation)

Commands never open forms or file pickers when run this way. modelcraft-cli commands prints the same registry. file.sample {name} opens a sample (parts, cantilever, impact) and solve.run {} solves every step; the Results workspace comes up when a result appears.

UI

Method	Params	Notes
ui.inspect	—	view settings (ui), camera, viewport rect (points), renderer (gpu/cpu) and adapter, open command form, status bar, node and element counts, the results display (results: what the results.* commands reply: view, stale, contour range, modes), the probed node (probe), busy (the background job: a file opening, a solve), prompt ({"unsaved": path}, "recover", "samples"), recent (recent files), selected (the browser's selected definition), nav (the left-drag mode), layout (each region of the window drawn last frame as [x, y, w, h] in points: app_bar, ribbon, workspace_switcher, document_tab, app_bar:<action>, browser, viewport, nav_bar, axis_view, context, command_line, timeline, toolbar_dropdown, palette), version
ui.set	any view setting: style (shaded_edges, shaded, wireframe), show_nodes, show_geometry, show_mesh, perspective, dark, show_tree (the browser), show_timeline, workspace (prepare, model, analysis, results), tab (the toolbar tab: geometry, mesh, properties, assembly, steps, loads, interactions, solve, results, tools; a tab of another workspace brings that workspace), palette (the command search open), menu (the open menu: file, help, workspace, view, more, or a panel's drop-down as <tab>/<panel> such as mesh/Tet; null closes it)	an unknown setting or value is an error; returns the settings
ui.view	view: front, back, left, right, top, bottom, iso, home (iso and fit), fit	returns the camera
ui.toolbar	—	the ribbon: workspace, workspaces, tab, tabs (the workspace's), menu (the open menu), panels (each panel label's menu key and rect), and every catalogue entry (docs/features.md) with id, label, tab, panel, command (null while coming soon), more (its related commands), coming_soon (the milestone, or null), fit — full (a button), collapsed (its panel is one button), more (its panel is in the » menu) or menu (in its panel's drop-down) — and rect (screen points, last frame, on the shown tab; for menu entries the row while the drop-down is open)
ui.start	command: a command or toolbar entry id	like a click on the toolbar, a drop-down row or a search result: a command without parameters runs, one with parameters opens its form in the context panel; an entry that is coming soon is an error naming its milestone. Never opens a native file picker: file entries (open, save as, write deck) open their command's form
ui.select	kind (set, material, section, step, boundary_condition, load, reference_point, coupling, fluid_domain), name; nothing to deselect	selects a definition as a browser click does; its properties (with Edit and Delete) show in the context panel
ui.prompt	answer: for unsaved save, discard or cancel; for recover recover (with id from file.recovery.list) or close; for samples open (with name) or close	answers the window's question (ui.inspect's prompt)
ui.dialog	params? (JSON object, fills the form), run?, cancel?	drives the open command form; run returns the command's result and closes the form on success
ui.click	x, y (screen points), button?: left/right/middle, shift?, ctrl?, alt?, double?	real pointer input; a click on a results plot probes the nearest node of the face under it (solve.probe; ui.inspect shows the values)
ui.move	x, y
ui.drag	x0, y0, x1, y1, button?, shift?, ctrl?, steps? (1–200)	press, move, release: in the viewport a left drag orbits, a right or middle drag (or Shift + left) pans
ui.scroll	x, y, delta? (wheel lines, −100–100; positive zooms in)	zooms at the point
ui.key	key (egui key name, Enter, Escape…), cmd?, shift?	F over the viewport frames the model
ui.text	text	typed text (into the focused field)
ui.worldToScreen	points: [[x, y, z]…] (at most 1000)	screen points in the viewport drawn last frame (null when not on screen)
ui.resize	width, height	window inner size in points
ui.fullscreen	on? (default true)	into or out of full screen; on macOS the title bar's left group moves into the traffic lights' room while there are none
ui.screenshot	path?	PNG of the window, taken a few frames later; waits for a presented frame; when none comes within 8 seconds (a hidden window, a locked screen) it answers with ui.capture's offscreen picture ("offscreen": true). Without path: modelcraft-shot.png in the temporary folder
ui.capture	path?, width?, height? (points; default the window's), scale? (pixels per point, 0.5–4; default the window's)	PNG of the whole window (title bar, ribbon, open menus and search, panels, forms and the viewport) drawn offscreen, without fade-in animations: the UI pass runs in a separate egui context and is rasterised on the CPU, so it works with the window hidden, minimised or the screen locked. At most 8192 pixels a side and 16 megapixels. Without path: modelcraft-shot.png in the temporary folder
ui.render	path, width? (default 1280), height? (default 800): whole pixels, each 1–8192 and at most 16 megapixels in all	CPU render of the model with the current camera and view settings (no window or GPU needed). A size out of range, or a scene over 20 million primitives, is an error
app.quit	—	closes the window

Files

User clicks (title bar File menu, toolbar entries, Cmd/Ctrl+O, S, Shift+S), drops on the window and files named on the command line go through native file pickers and open in the background (ui.inspect's busy); commands sent here take their paths as parameters and run at once (file.open, file.save_as, geometry.open, geometry.import.mesh, deck.write).