Python source code for "impressive" Python scripts

Please forgive me if the questions I’m asking demonstrate my ignorance; I’m a Python user and a writer for a 3D company, but am as yet completely unfamiliar with Blender. I hope to change this in the near future.

I’m looking for Python scripts, with Python source, that illustrate the use of Python in a 3D environment in some “impressive” way. Someone pointed out the L-systems package available for Blender (http://jmsoler.free.fr/util/blenderfile/images/lsystem/lsystem.htm), and that (or something similar) would be ideal. However, when I downloaded the L-systems package and unzipped, it contained just a .blend file (which I’m assuming is Blender plugin format).

Is the .blend format the standard way for distributing scripts? Is there any way a script can be extracted from such a file? My working assumption is that most people writing scripts for Blender do or are willing to make their Python code public, but of course I may be wrong in this.

And, aside from the L-Systems example, can anyone suggest further scripts (with source) that do a good job of illustrating the power of Python in combination with 3D? Both small scripts that show how even a little Python can go a long way, and larger scripts showing that Python can be used for truly large projects, would be great.

Thanks,
Ken

some scripts [makehuman, fibre, l-system are good examples] need to be setup in a particular way, so a .blend file [a blender file, can contain scripts and models and textures or whatever] is often provided as an example of how to setup the script and containing notes of its usage.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Blending_Into_Python

http://jmsoler.free.fr/didacticiel/blender/tutor/english/index_prog_python.htm

(for myself) The 2 most ‘impressive’ examples currently are:

https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31732&highlight=sculptmesh

https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=49157&highlight=gestures

Should get you going. Browsing the back pages and the stickies of this forum should also bring up some interesting stuff. Welcome!

%<

However, when I downloaded the L-systems package and unzipped, it contained just a .blend file (which I’m assuming is Blender plugin format).

.blend is just a saved blender file. Most ‘plugins’ for blender are python scripts, as .py files. Some are .c (well, before compilation, anway) but these are less common now as python becomes more integrated.

I think the file in question has the script(s) embedded in it.

There is the scripted effect workshop, some good example in here:
https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=49291&highlight=script

Example of Blender API, interface coding, data saving, external lib used is this script I did:
https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=51294