[Bf-funboard] Question on appending

[Vania Smrkovski]

Malefico,
	You're not the first to ask this.  As it currently stands, the Blender 
interface supports "Append" and "Link" as the only ways to import items from 
an external .blend file.  Plus, there is a decent script option available at 
this link:  
http://www.blender.org/modules/documentation/234PythonDoc/Library-module.html.  
Finally, there is at least one project trying to come up with a workflow to 
allow multiple files to work together pretty much as you describe.

Append:  A one-time import.  As I have been able to determine, import an 
Object, you get most everything it is associated with.  So if you want the 
mesh, textures, etc, just get the Object, and I believe you will get 
everything.

Link:  Available through the Append menu option, you can select a button 
labeled "Link", and you get the object in that file with only the file size 
addition needed to reference that file.  I don't know the internals, but you 
already picked out the one major limitation with Link.  The object can't be 
moved.  Or at least, as of 2.32, you can move it, but the next time you open 
the file, nothing you saved included saving the changes to the linked file.  
Link is good if you want to have objects in multiple files and you know you 
don't have to worry about moving anything.  I do not know what happens if you 
script, IPO, use game logic on objects linked to external files, but I assume 
most cases should cause no problems if you name your objects uniquely.  So if 
you Link to the Object in the external file, any scripting or animation you 
did in that file should (should) be imported as well.

The Python script described in the link above:  This is one of the 
cornerstones for the script I have been working on.  But on its own, it's 
pretty educational.  The Blender Library module provides for the ability to 
load files from external files any time you run the file, and modification of 
the script allowed me to create a pretty handy import/update script by adding 
logic to check if the object was already in my target file, and to delete it 
first before importing the object from the library.  

Finally, my Blender Project Management Toolkit:  It is still very preliminary, 
but if you are interested, you can visit 
https://projects.blender.org/projects/blenderproject/ to see the project 
site.  The toolkit is designed to use a database (no DB server necessary) to 
manage projects, subprojects and external library files.  I can't say I know 
when we'll have something ready for prime-time, it's largely experimental.  
But it is designed to address needs I had for my project that sound like they 
might be similar to what you've been trying to do, so I hope you can drop in 
on that link and get involved.  Having managed to get the technical hurdles 
solved, I'm getting bogged down in figuring out exactly how to implement the 
workflow.  How can it be used and be useful to other people than just my 
skewered brain?

So to answer, Blender can do it now, but it needs some tweaking, and at least 
one feature complete Python solution is being worked on, though others 
probably already exist and I haven't heard of them yet.

Cheers,

Vania

On Saturday 11 September 2004 7:19 pm, malefico andauer wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Although I've been using Blender for quite a long time
> now, it was just recently that I've needed to use
> appending very often and it didn't work just as I
> expected, so here are my questions:
> 
> Is there a way to import a character in my scene as
> "linked" (to make all changes in its single character
> file) and still be able to animate it in a "scene"
> separate file ? All I could do was linking but this
> import the character in a "frozen" state were I
> couldn't even change its location. "Appending" of
> course let me animate it, but changes in
> texture/whatever are not updated in the original file
> (what I think is OK).
> 
> Is there a "designed" workflow for using "link append"
> ?
> 
> Cheers.
> 
> malefico.
> 
> 
> 	
> 	
> 		
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-- 
_______________
Vania Smrkovski
www.pandorasdream.com