Accessing a specific instance of Enterprise Architect via COM from Python

A running instance of EA can be accessed from a Python script with something like:

from win32com import client
eaApp = client.GetActiveObject("EA.App")
eaRepo = eaApp.Repository

However, this seems to always returns the COM object of the instance first started.

Let’s say we have a script that needs to starts a new instance of EA. It does so by calling os.startfile(eapxFile) with eapxFile being the path to an empty EA file. Then it should import some XMI file, for which it needs access to the COM object.

At the same time, a couple of other (older) instances of EA are open. How can the COM object of the new instance of EA be retrieved?

Note: An alternative way of starting a new instance of EA, if immediate access to its COM object is possible, would of course be feasible as well. Maybe even using the COM interface directly. Most importantly, other running instances of EA can not be used.

Answer

In VBScript you can create an EA.Repository object in a brand new EA instance using

dim repository
set repository = CreateObject("EA.Repository")

The Python equivalent seems to be

from comtypes.client import CreateObject
repository = CreateObject("EA.Repository")

then open a model using

repository.OpenFile(myEapFile)

close the model using

repository.CloseFile()

followed by

repository.Exit()

to make sure the instance of the ea.exe process is closed.