Inspecting other .blend files via python

Coding Python Support
1

Hello all,

Does anyone know of a way to get information from another .blend file using python? For example, if you currently have the file SomeObjects.blend open, and you want to import a scene or object from SupplementaryObjects.blend, is there some way you can read out the list of scenes / objects in SupplementaryObjects.blend while you still have SomeObjects.blend open?

(Obviously you can do this with File->Append; I’m looking for a way to create a python list of all the scenes that could possibly be imported from a .blend file).

Thanks for your help!

2

http://blenderartists.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-176343.html
looks promising,

20-Feb-10, 19:56

bpy.ops.wm.link_append(path="//Test.blend/Object/MyItem",filename="MyItem",directory="/Users/MyComputer/Desktop/3D/Test.blend/Object/")

Author = Pipeline
My problem was that I neglected to add the directory string. For some reason, the official documentation (http://www.blender.org/documentation/250PythonDoc/bpy.ops.wm.html?highlight=link_append#bpy.ops.wm.l ink_append) says it’s all ‘optional’, so… Anyway, it works like this :slight_smile:

read the entire thread, it’s quite interesting. Link_append doesn’t seem to implement the ability to list the items in the blend at runtime… The workaround seems more involved that it needs to be.

3

this can help (2.57 ok, not 2.56a):

with bpy.data.libraries.load(blend) as (src, dest):

https://github.com/pierriko/morse/blob/master/src/morse/builder/generator.py
http://www.blender.org/documentation/blender_python_api_2_57_release/bpy.types.BlendDataLibraries.html

4

Thanks pierriko, the bpy.data.libraries.load() function is exactly what I was looking for!