Description

This part takes the API in a different direction, on a different model: an existing mid-rise building with 47 supports. Instead of a script run from the editor, the workflow gets a front end — a Python GUI wired to MIDAS GEN NX through the MAPI key, where connecting to the model, syncing it and running the analysis are buttons in the interface. Service and strength support reactions come back into a single table, every support in one view, next to the design output that follows from it.

The GUI is written with an AI coding agent running inside the IDE, which reads the project files, executes the program, and edits the code in place. The prompt is built as a role statement, a numbered list of the functions the program must perform, and a link to the MIDAS API Python documentation so the agent uses actual function names, with a reviewable plan produced before any file is written. From the extracted reactions, the finished tool sizes isolated footings to ACI 318M-14 for one-way and two-way shear at an allowable bearing pressure of 150 kPa and f'c of 21 MPa, then writes them back into the model as plates meshed at 0.5 m with the support node kept on the mesh.

Reviewing the generated code is treated as part of the workflow rather than an afterthought. The walkthrough shows the foundation engine written for uniaxial bending where biaxial was required, plus two runtime failures — reaction extraction on load combinations, and the drawing step — each fixed by feeding the error back to the agent. The program reached a working state on the third round.