How to disable and enable collections in blender py

Coding Python Support
1

Hey there,
Is there any way to enable and disable a single collection using blender python?
I’ve been searching for this as I’m working with many collections but couldn’t find it.
your time will be appreciated! :slight_smile:

2 Likes
2

this isn’t done via the Collection object itself, but from a LayerCollection object:
https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.LayerCollection.html

unfortunately accessing LayerCollections arbitrarily is a bit convoluted. I created a helper function that can assist with this.

def get_layer_collection(collection, view_layer=None):
    '''Returns the view layer LayerCollection for a specificied Collection'''
    def scan_children(lc, result=None):
        for c in lc.children:
            if c.collection == collection:
                return c
            result = scan_children(c, result)
        return result

    if view_layer is None:
        view_layer = bpy.context.view_layer
    return scan_children(view_layer.layer_collection)

To use it, just call get_layer_collection(your_collection) and you’ll have a LayerCollection object you can use as you like. Just remember that the root scene collection does not have a corresponding LayerCollection.

1 Like
3

Unfortunately if you’re linking a collection in more than one place in your scene, there is (AFAIK) not any reliable way to get to a specific layer collection. See my thread over on devtalk for more detail :slight_smile:

For instance in this setup :

image

Collection 2 is linked in 3 different layer collections. You can mitigate it somehow with something like

def get_layer_collections(collection, view_layer=None):
    if view_layer is None:
        view_layer = bpy.context.view_layer
    layer_collections_to_test = [view_layer.layer_collection]
    while layer_collections_to_test:
        layer_collection_to_test = layer_collections_to_test.pop(0)
        layer_collections_to_test.extend(layer_collection_to_test.children)
        if layer_collection_to_test.collection == collection:
            yield layer_collection_to_test

Which returns all the potential layer collections. Then you can test if the layer collection has a specific parent or such if you need to.
And it has the added benefit of never triggering recursion limit which can happen with recursive functions. Note it returns a generator object, not a list so you may want to cast it to a list.

my_collection = bpy.data.collections["My Collection"]
my_layer_collections = list(get_layer_collections(my_collection ))
1 Like
4

the question is Clear , it depended to Disabling and enabling a single Collection

what is my wrong ?

        new_collection = bpy.data.collections.new("seq_1"))                    
        addedCollection = context.scene.collection.children.link(new_collection)                    
       context.view_layer.layer_collection.children.exclude(addedCollection)

after run that the collection still enabled

5

exclude is an attribute on the layer collection itself, not a method you call on the parent collection.

context.view_layer.layer_collection.children["seq_1"].exclude = True