Associate Blender with file import in other format than .blend

Question

Is it possible to associate Blender (in Windows 7 and later) to open files as it would be done via Import. I often import files in .dae or .fbx format to Blender and I would like to import them simply by opening the file in Windows explorer. Is that possible?

If I simply associate that file with Blender, it opens Blender in a default state with the cube.

Answer 1

How about making a .bat file which will open blender and load a python script, which will load your object? I've made a little proof of concept.

First, the python script. Save it somewhere. It could be next to the .bat file.

import sys
import bpy

pathToImport = sys.argv[-1]

if pathToImport.endswith('fbx'):
    bpy.ops.import_scene.fbx(filepath=pathToImport)
elif pathToImport.endswith('dae'):
    bpy.ops.wm.collada_import(filePath=pathToImport)
elif pathToImport.endswith('obj'):
    bpy.ops.import_scene.obj(filepath=pathToImport)
else:
    print('Add the specific format?')

As the import operators are not all in the same place (as you can see for the fbx and the collada) I've done this if/elif statement where you can add other formats.

Then the .bat file

SET blender="C:\bin\blender-2.70-windows64\blender.exe"
SET pythonOpenScript="R:\flavio\tmp\openAndImport.py"

%blender% -P %pythonOpenScript% -- %1

I set the paths to blender and to the python script here, easier to manage/change. The %1 at the end of the last line will be the fbx or collada file you want to open.

To finish, right click on any fbx file / properties go to the 'open with' and change it targeting the .bat. That will open the default blender scene and import your object. Any other fbx file should do the same thing. Proceed in the same way for .obj and .dae files.