A dumb little thing that makes an animated GIF from your Makerbot preview window. Start at Layer 0, run this script, and out comes a lovely GIF.

MakerbotLayersGif.py

'''
MAKERBOT LAYERS >> GIF
Jeff Thompson | 2015 | www.jeffreythompson.org

A dumb little thing that makes an animated GIF from your Makerbot preview
window. Start at Layer 0, run this script, and out comes a lovely GIF.

EXAMPLE OUTPUT:
This sweet saber-toothed tiger skull:
http://www.jeffreythompson.org/downloads/SaberToothedSkullAnimation_300px.gif

SAMPLE USAGE:
python makerbotlayersgif.py --frames 166 --bbox 422,69,1017,572 --width 300

BUILD THE OBJECT TOP DOWN?
Key code 125 is the down arrow in AppleScript:
	cmd = """osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to key code 125'"""

REQUIREMENTS and THANK YOU:
http://pyscreenshot.readthedocs.org/en/latest/
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/36943/how-do-i-automate-a-key-press-in-applescript

'''


import sys, os, time, subprocess, shutil, argparse
import pyscreenshot as ImageGrab


ALL_OFF = '\033[0m'
BOLD = '\033[1m'
REVERSE = '\033[7m'


# parse arguments
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Create a sweet animated gif from the Makerbot preview.')
parser.add_argument('-f', '--frames', type=int, required=True, help='Number of frames to capture (listed as "layers" in the Makerbot app).')
parser.add_argument('-b', '--bbox', required=False, help='Bounding box for capture, listed as x1,y1,x2,y2.')
parser.add_argument('-w', '--width', required=False, help='Width of gif output (in pixels).')
args = vars(parser.parse_args())
num_layers = args['frames']
if args['bbox'] != None:
	b = args['bbox'].split(',')
	bbox = (int(b[0]), int(b[1]), int(b[2]), int(b[3]))


# create a temporary 'frames' folder
try:
	os.mkdir('frames')
except:
	pass


# countdown
print BOLD + 'MAKERBOT LAYERS GIFMAKER' + ALL_OFF
print REVERSE + '[ select Makerbot window now ]' + ALL_OFF
print 'Capturing in',
for i in range(5, 0, -1):
	print str(i) + '...',
	sys.stdout.flush()
	time.sleep(1)
print '\n' + BOLD + 'STARTING!' + ALL_OFF


# grab it!
for i in range(num_layers):
	print '- ' + str(i+1) + '/' + str(num_layers)
	
	# take a screenshot
	filename = 'frames/' + ('%03d' % (i, )) + '.png'
	if bbox == None:
		im = ImageGrab.grab()
	else:
		im = ImageGrab.grab(bbox=bbox)
	im.save(filename)

	# down key
	cmd = """osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to key code 126'"""
	os.system(cmd)


# build into animation
print 'Building animation...'
if args['width'] != None:
	p = subprocess.call([ 'convert', '-delay', '10', '-loop', '1', '-resize', args['width'] + 'x' + args['width'], 'frames/*.png', 'layers.gif'])
else:
	p = subprocess.call([ 'convert', '-delay', '10', '-loop', '1', 'frames/*.png', 'layers.gif'])


# delete temp directory
print 'Deleting temp directory...'
shutil.rmtree('frames')


# all done!
print BOLD + 'DONE!' + ALL_OFF + '\n'