How can I get the currently selected objects in the outliner, if they are hidden?

Coding Python Support
1

Hi, I am making a script where I need to get the currently selcted objects in the outliner, this works fine in most cases with bpy.context.selected_objects.

The problem is that it does not work if the objects are hidden, I can get the active object with bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active, even if its hidden, but not all the other selected objects. bpy.context.view_layer.objects.selected does not seem to work either?

How can I get the selected objects?
image

2

I might be wrong, but I don’t think you can. I believe it’s the situation that Hidden doesn’t just mean from the view, but even from Blender selecting it via a script. It’s hidden, so blender can not see it and select it…

(Which is a crazy limitation. Please correct if I’m mistaken.)

2 Likes
3

Oh, thats a bummer :frowning: but some operations in Blender does work with hidden objects like Delete, Mark as Asset, Copy, Rename and Delete Hierarchy. So it must be possible right?
image

4

Some operations are possible when you do it directly over the data-block, as for example bpy.data.objects.remove(bpy.data.objects['Cube'])…
But not all operations work that way, specially operators with a specific poll function.

What you can do, it to set the object to visible, call the operator and then set them invisible again… most probably it all happens before a screen redraw (depends on the operation, of course).

5

I need to know the selected objects first, then it would work fine.

I tried this already, but it does not seem to work, even if its made visiable, if it was selected before being not hidden, its does not count as a “real selection” and does not get the orange outline:
image

I might misunderstand, do you have a example?

6

You can select them, and it’s very simple (bpy.data.objects['Cube'].select_set(True))…

But their selection won’t be part of the Context, and the poll functions from most operators will return false. :frowning:

1 Like
7

I asked on blender.stackexchange as well, and guess what, someone figured it out! :partying_face: Check out Crantisz very helpful answere here

I am so happy it works! :tada:

import bpy

class OUTLINER_OT_op(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = 'outliner.op'
    bl_label = 'Print selected items in Outliner'
 
    def execute(self, context):
        
        selection = context.selected_ids
        selected_collections = [sel for sel in selection if sel.rna_type.name != 'Collection']
        print(selected_collections)
        return {'FINISHED'}
 
bpy.utils.register_class(OUTLINER_OT_op)

override_context = bpy.context.copy()
area = [area for area in bpy.context.screen.areas if area.type == "OUTLINER"][0]
override_context['area'] = area
override_context['region'] = area.regions[-1]
 
with bpy.context.temp_override(**override_context):
    bpy.ops.outliner.op()
  • Edit, a even better way if you want to access to the selected objects in outliner without any bpy.context.temp_override, works even now if you do it in a UI re-draw.
for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
    if 'OUTLINER' in area.type:
        for region in area.regions:
            if 'WINDOW' in region.type:
                override = {'area': area, 'region': region}
                break
        break
if override is not None:
    print([o for o in bpy.context.selected_ids if type(o) == bpy.types.Object])
3 Likes
8

Yah… that solves the problem with the Context!

1 Like
9

I don’t think you need the operator FWIW. It’s one of the benefits of the new syntax for context overrides, it isn’t strictly confined to operator overrides anymore.

import bpy

override_context = bpy.context.copy()
area = [area for area in bpy.context.screen.areas if area.type == "OUTLINER"][0]
override_context['area'] = area
override_context['region'] = area.regions[-1]
 
with bpy.context.temp_override(**override_context):
    print([o for o in bpy.context.selected_ids if type(o) == bpy.types.Object])
1 Like