Suggestions & feature wishlist

[Smarty]

Kind of an odd idea, but would it be possible to create an operator which produces a list of SCS root objects which don't contain any objects with the shadowonly material? It could be useful for vehicle projects where there are many accessory models – especially in workflows like mine where shadowcasters are among the last things to be added.

[50keda]

@Smarty:
1. nope ... as whole export system is based on parenting But maybe it would be time to change that? and instead start to think about exporting collections?
2. well I think you need to start scripting Because this is really custom feature that you need at the moment, tomorrow you might not need it anymore at all.

[AmirMahdavi]

Can you combine them? Root locator is good but something like (Export only visible collection) is very nice feature.
This way we can export all the root inside a visible collection without select them one by one. (For Export Selection mode)

[50keda]

Well you got that covered already:
1. create new collection named Export
2. link only objects you want to export to that collection
3. right click on collection -> select objects
4. do selection export

[AmirMahdavi]

Hmm i didn't think about it thanks

[Smarty]

instead start to think about exporting collections?

I think that would get quite messy. The current parented system is perfectly fine. Such a change would actually severely break a few of my blend files, as I sometimes keep my shadow geometry in a separate collection. All I was suggesting was adding an option that selects all SCS roots within collections that are active on the view layer, and export them as normal. Think of it as a slightly more selective version of the 'Active Scene' export filter. After some practice, I think box selection in the Outliner is probably good enough for my purposes.

As for scripting myself, that could be an option. I just spent most of yesterday writing a Ruby script to generate chassis defs from CSV data. The scariest part is that it works. The GMC General currently has 169 different chassis variations, so automation is critical. Now I just need a good automation solution for the extended shadow textures for them. I generally steer clear of Python though – it's much too sensitive about syntax/formatting for my typing skills.

[SiSL]

I would also find collection export quite messy as well.

Current system is only messy if you are upgrading from old version of blender.

So a tip: Delete all collections (not hierarcy but directly collections) so all your objects become in single collection again. Then you can seperate them.

[50keda]

@Smarty well about that extra export option, try my suggestion above, I think it will be handy for ya.

[AmirMahdavi]

a button to export or copy current preset settings to use in custom shader_presets

[ external image ]

[Smarty]

Something that would be very useful is some way to add a look to a selection of SCS roots, or otherwise produce a common set of looks in a selection of SCS roots. Right now, I have a group of railing and curve items that I want to add a common set of looks to. I'm forced to use one of these workflows:
- create each look (x6) on each object (x16), for a total of 96 times adding and naming a look
- create the looks in one object, and then copy and relink the root 15 times

...at least I can synchronize material attributes across objects afterwards.

I can think of two potential solutions:
1. An operator within the SCS Looks panel, "Add look to selection" which will prompt the user for a name for the new look and add it to each SCS root in the selection, skipping those who already have a look with that name.
2. An extension to the Copy Attributes plugin, "Copy SCS Looks" which copies the look list from the active object to all SCS roots in the selection, if the active object is an SCS root.