Command Line Utilities

All of the OpenSim Tools are available as command-line utilities that take as input the same setup (or settings) file loaded into or saved from the OpenSim GUI application. For example, to perform Inverse Kinematics from the command line (the Command Prompt in Windows), one can execute the following command:

ik –S arm26_Setup_InverseKinematics.xml

Similarly, these command line arguments work for CMC or any other tool, with the complete set of command-line executables available in <OpenSim_Install_Dir>/bin. In addition to the –Setup option, there are –Help, –PrintSetup and –PropertyInfo options. Help provides this list of options. Print Setup prints a default setup file for that Tool with all available properties (XML tags) for Tool settings.

The –PropertyInfo option can be a very handy resource to obtain information about existing settings for Tools and ModelComponents, including the XML tags needed in the model and/or setup file. This is the same information listed in the "Available Objects…" panel under the Help menu in the OpenSim GUI. Executing ik –PI lists all the available classes (components, analyses, utilities and tools) available in OpenSim. For more information about a particular object, such as adding a point constraint to the model, executing

ik –PI PointConstraint

yields:

PROPERTIES FOR PointConstraint (5)
1. isDisabled
2. body_1
3. body_2
4. location_body_1
5. location_body_2

The information returned lists the properties for defining a point constraint in OpenSim.