Generate vertex groups from objects

Question

I have multiple mesh objects I'd like to combine into a single object. However, I'd also like to retain the name of these objects as vertex groups, and assign those objects to those vertex groups. Does blender feature a way of automatically doing this when joining objects? Or even one-click generate a vertex group for a singular object from its object name?

Answer 1

Give object A a vertex group named A. In edit mode, select all vertices and assign them to that group.

Same thing for object B with a group named B.

Then join A and B like normal. The vertex groups are preserved.

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Script to do this automatically. Select the objects you want to join, make sure you're in Object mode, then run it from the text editor.

import bpy
assert bpy.context.mode == 'OBJECT'
for ob in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    if ob.type != 'MESH': continue
    vg = ob.vertex_groups.new(name=ob.name)
    vg.add(list(range(len(ob.data.vertices))), 1.0, 'REPLACE')
bpy.ops.object.join()