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Often used values and operations

Here, we list some frequently used parts of the API, for varying types of data.

Access instance attribute

Note that where values are listed as attributes of classes, such as Camera.lens or Scene.camera, you need to access the attribute on an instance of that class, not on the class itself.

Example: to get the active camera access bpy.context.scene.camera or bpy.data.scenes["myscene"] (and not Scene.camera).

Scene

  • Current scene: bpy.context.scene (read-only)

Objects

  • Type of an object: Object.type (read-only)
  • Active object: bpy.context.active_object (read-only)
  • Selected objects: bpy.context.selected_objects (read-only)
  • Delete selected objects: bpy.ops.object.delete()

Camera

  • Active camera object: Scene.camera (returns the camera object, not camera object data)
  • Type: Camera.type ("PERSP", "ORTHO", ...)
  • Lens unit: Camera.lens_unit (either "MILLIMETERS" or "FOV")
  • Focal length: Camera.lens (in mm)
  • Field of view (horizontal): Camera.angle (in radians)
  • Clipping distances: Camera.clip_start, Camera.clip_end

Rendering

  • Image resolution:
    • Width: Scene.render.settings.resolution_x
    • Height: Scene.render.settings.resolution_y
    • Percentage: Scene.render.settings.resolution_percentage
  • Output file: Scene.render.filepath
  • Image output type: Scene.render.image_settings.file_format ("PNG", "JPEG", ...)
  • Number of samples per pixel (Cycles): Scene.cycles.samples
  • Render current scene: bpy.ops.render.render(). See parameters how to control the specific type of render (still image versus animation) and whether to save output

Animation

  • Current frame Scene.frame_current
  • Frame range: Scene.frame_start, Scene.frame_end
  • Frame rate: Scene.render.fps

File I/O

  • Save the current session to a specific file: bpy.ops.wm.save_as_mainfile()
  • Open Blend file bpy.ops.wm.open_mainfile()
  • Import a file (call depends on file type):
    • bpy.ops.wm.obj_import() (OBJ scene),
    • bpy.ops.wm.ply_import() (PLY mesh), etc.
    • bpy.ops.import_scene.gltf (glTF scene)
    • See here and here for more details.
  • Export a file (call depends on file type) follows the same call names. For scene export see here and here, for mesh export see here.
Last update: 07 March 2024 10:58:08 •