Setting smart component value in script is ignored?

Scripting
1

Im working on script for a pixel font that has pixels (‘tiles’) in different sizes. The tiles are smart components with a property ‘size’ that I use for scaling.

In one version of the font the glyphs are build up from a single tile and in another version I use clusters of eight tiles that are all unique.

For the single tile version my code runs perfect but when I run the cluster version the size property seems to be ignored by Glyphs. I cannot find out why.

Here is part of the code for the single tile version that works well:

# add tiles:
            for x in range(0, xIterations): 

                for y in range(0, yIterations + 4): #yIterations + 1 of meer om boven kapitaalhoogte uit te komen

                    tile_x = x * x_increment  # x center positie van een tile 
                    tile_y = y * y_increment +yStart # y center positie van een tile

                    is_even = y % 2 == 0

                    x_offset = 0

                    if is_even: 
                        x_offset += x_increment / 2 

                    tile_width  = tile.layers[0].bounds.size.width
                    tile_height = tile.layers[0].bounds.size.height

                    number_of_hits_negative =  self.hit_points(tile_x + x_offset, tile_y, round(tile_width * 0.5), round(tile_height * 0.5), thisLayerBezierPath) # tile_width en height * iets om blurgebied groter of kleiner te maken
                    number_of_hits = 9 - number_of_hits_negative

                    # print(number_of_hits)

                    tile_component = GSComponent( tile, NSPoint(0,0) )
                    # print(tile_component)

                    if positive_type :
                        tile_component.smartComponentValues['size'] = number_of_hits
                    else:                  
                        tile_component.smartComponentValues['size'] = number_of_hits_negative


                    tile_component.applyTransform( make_translation_matrix(x * x_increment + x_offset, y * y_increment +yStart) )

                    components.append( tile_component )
                  
            thisLayer.shapes = components

And below is the cluster version. The tiles are placed correctly and I get no error messages, just the size is ignored

 # add tiles:
            for x in range(0, xIterations): 

                for y in range(0, yIterations): #yIterations + 1 of meer om boven kapitaalhoogte uit te komen

                    def place(tile):

                        tile_width  = tile.layers[0].bounds.size.width
                        tile_height = tile.layers[0].bounds.size.height

                        tile_x = tile.layers[0].bounds.origin.x + x * x_increment
                        tile_y = tile.layers[0].bounds.origin.y + y * y_increment +yStart

                        tile_x_center = tile_x + tile_width / 2
                        tile_y_center = tile_y + tile_height / 2

                        number_of_hits_negative =  self.hit_points(tile_x_center, tile_y_center, round(tile_width * 0.33), round(tile_height * 0.33), thisLayerBezierPath) # tile_width en height * iets om blurgebied groter of kleiner te maken
                        number_of_hits = 9 - number_of_hits_negative
                        print(number_of_hits)
                        # print("tile_x_center = "+str(tile_x_center))

                        tile_component = GSComponent( tile, NSPoint(0,0) )
                        # print(tile_component)

                        if positive_type :
                            tile_component.smartComponentValues['size'] = number_of_hits
                        else:
                            tile_component.smartComponentValues['size'] = number_of_hits_negative

                        print("size = " + str(tile_component.smartComponentValues['size']))

                        tile_component.applyTransform( make_translation_matrix(x * x_increment, y * y_increment +yStart) )

                        components.append( tile_component )

                    for i in range(0, len(tiles)):
                        place(tiles[i])

                   
            thisLayer.shapes = components

The size value prints correctly to the console but the smart components remain unchanged. What am I missing?

2

can you compare the content of smartComponentValues when you set it by a script and when you set it manually?

3

Thanks for getting back so quickly!
The script sets smartComponentValues between 0 an 9 and so does the _smart component ‘size’ property. If I run the script tiles are placed correctly but their size slider is always set to 0. Is that what you are asking?

4

No, set the slider manually and then print the content of that property. Then set it to something else and print it again. Are both outputs what you expect?

5

Ah, I see! When I print the value of the single tile it works as expected: when I use the slider to change the size, the print output is correct. And I can also set the size using a script (see below). But with the cluster tiles this does not work. It ignores the size I set in the script and when I change the size using the slider it prints whatever value I set in the script before (even with that line commented out). This what I used to test this in the macro:


font = Glyphs.font

selected_glyph = font.selectedLayers[0].parent
print(f"Glyph: {selected_glyph.name}")
# Iterate through all layers of the glyph
for layer in selected_glyph.layers:
	print(f"Layer: {layer.name}")
	# Iterate through all components in the layer
	for component in layer.components:
	# Get the position of the component
		x = component.position.x
		y = component.position.y
		# Print the position of the component
		print(f"  Component: {component.componentName}, Position: ({x}, {y})")
	# If the component is a smart component, print its values
	if component.smartComponentValues:
		print("    Smart Component Values:")
		component.smartComponentValues['size'] = 5 #comment out to set the slider manually
		print(component.smartComponentValues['size'])
6

Use the same component that you like to script and set it up manually. Then print that and replicate that with your script.

7

Fixed it! Had the feeling it might actually be the smart components and not the script so I recreated the smart components from scratch and ran the script again. Now it works. Comparing the two sets of smart components I cannot detect any differences though. I vaguely remember renaming the smart components at some point, could that have broken anything? Thanks for the help! It is greatly appreciated!