Arranging objects on a grid, kitbash style

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Downloaded a couple of free kitbash assets, now the goal is to arrange them in a single file for ease of access and visualization. Managed to import all of the objs at once with this add-on: Import multiple OBJ files for Blender 2.8 - 3.x. Now the challenge is to align and arrange them into a grid-like fashion such as the one on the kitbash example bellow, albeit it does not need to be so optimal.
To further exemplify, the starting arrangement on the image is the overlapping configuration that you get after batch importing the objs. The goal is to position them like in the last screenshot.

Arrangement.psb
Arrangement.psb1920×1050 397 KB

I should also mention that I am not looking into anything manual, given that I will be handling hundreds, sometimes thousands of objects, so a solution like grid-snapping + tweak tool wont work. Both the Oscurat Tools add-on and Object - Transform - Align Objects will only align objects in one axis without generating grid patterns. Ive also tried adding particle properties to a plane, but had poor results. I`m not familiar with it, so perhaps better configurations would do the job, but I would still have to find a way to get rid of the plane itself whilst keeping the particles.

As a bonus question, it would also be useful to be able to batch re-dimension all objects within an average or similar size. To illustrate, if you have a house and a spoon as objects, the idea would be for them to have the same x axis dimension, for example, whilst keeping the other metrics to maintain the original proportion. This would ensure that all objects fill a similar amount of visual space. I`ve found no solution for this.

A different approach that would bypass all of this hassle would be through the use of an assets manager. Ive found the native option on File > Data Previews > Batch Generate Previews to be insufficient. The models on the thumbnails have low resolution, jagged white edges and poor lighting. Im ready to partake an alternative or different approach.

Note: Found out that I can only post 1 image, so I had to re-edit the post with a collage. This should be warned more readily to avert the extra work.

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Sounds like you need to learn python and develop a script that does it for you. Your use case is pretty unique and I’ve not seen an addon or script with grid packing algorithm floating around, that would solve this problem.

Take a look at this if you want to do it yourself: Blender python API

Maybe you’ll get lucky and somebody is bored enough to write it for you, I’m busy at the moment.

Note: The 1 image limit is just because you are a new user; it doesn’t apply to a trusted forum member. It is true however that it doesn’t get mentioned to a new user, not even in the tutorial (could be done better).

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An addon developed by Duarte Ramos was created in April of the same year of this post ironically to forefill the same requirement.

Using this in combination with Import multiple OBJ files for Blender

and Simple Distribution which distributes evenly from mesh edges (might be bounding box)

Produces good results with a high level of control.

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