Added set_properties context manager

import copy

import operator

from functools import reduce

from contextlib import contextmanager

@contextmanager

def set_properties(obj, **kwargs):

    """A context manager to set, then reset, certain properties of an object.

    The first argument is the object, subsequent keyword arguments are properties

    of said object, which are set initially, then reset to their previous values.

    """

    saved_properties = {}

    for k in kwargs.keys():

        try:

            saved_properties[k] = getattr(obj, k)

        except AttributeError:

            print("Warning: could not get {} on {}.  This property will not be restored!".format(k, obj))

    for k, v in kwargs.items():

        setattr(obj, k, v)

    try:

        yield

    finally:

        for k, v in saved_properties.items():

            setattr(obj, k, v)

def axes_to_array(coordinate_dictionary, axis_keys=['x', 'y', 'z'], base_array=None):

    """Takes key-value pairs of a JSON value, and maps onto an array"""