Run an edit-mode operator on every object in the scene

Question

I want to untriangulate every object in my scene with this script:

import bpy

for ob in bpy.data.objects:
    bpy.ops.mesh.tris_convert_to_quads(limit=0.9, uvs=False, vcols=False, sharp=False, materials=False)

But it doesn't work in object mode, any ideas on how I can get it working?

Answer 1

There are 2 ways you can do this:

1. Standard API (bpy) - the most straightforward is to set each object in editmode and run the tool.
   
   Notice I'm not using bpy.data.objects, This will operate on all objects in your blend file, not just your scene, instead use bpy.context.scene.objects.

   import bpy
   
   scene = bpy.context.scene
   for ob in scene.objects:
       if ob.type == 'MESH':
           scene.objects.active = ob
           bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT', toggle=False)
   
           bpy.ops.mesh.reveal()
           bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='SELECT')
   
           # execute any editmode tool
           bpy.ops.mesh.tris_convert_to_quads(limit=0.9,
                                              uvs=False,
                                              vcols=False,
                                              sharp=False,
                                              materials=False)
   
           bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT', toggle=False)
   

   Note: You need to be careful trying to edit all objects, some may be hidden, not on a visible layer, or linked in from an external file (and can't be edited). For this reason its often better to use context.selected_editable_objects

   ---

2. bmesh module (Docs) - bypass bpy.ops modes and edit the mesh directly. In this case using the bmesh api. Note that this is specific to meshes, curves, metaballs etc will need to use bpy.ops still since they don't have an equivalent to bmesh.

   import bpy
   import bmesh
   
   scene = bpy.context.scene
   for ob in scene.objects:
       if ob.type == 'MESH':
           me = ob.data
           bm = bmesh.new()
           bm.from_mesh(me)
   
           # execute any bmesh operator
           bmesh.ops.join_triangles(bm, faces=bm.faces,
                                    limit=0.9,
                                    cmp_sharp=False,
                                    cmp_uvs=False,
                                    cmp_vcols=False,
                                    cmp_materials=False)
           bm.to_mesh(me)
           bm.free()
   

   Note: The examples above may touch the same mesh multiple times since many objects can share the mesh, You almost never want this, at worst it gives invalid results because the tool runs many times, at best the script just runs slowly and does a lot of useless calculation.

   Here is an example which ensures meshes are only edited once.

   import bpy
   import bmesh
   
   scene = bpy.context.scene
   unique_meshes = set([ob.data for ob in scene.objects if ob.type == 'MESH'])
   
   for me in unique_meshes:
       bm = bmesh.new()
       bm.from_mesh(me)
   
       # execute any bmesh operator
       bmesh.ops.join_triangles(bm, faces=bm.faces,
                                limit=0.9,
                                cmp_sharp=False,
                                cmp_uvs=False,
                                cmp_vcols=False,
                                cmp_materials=False)
       bm.to_mesh(me)
       bm.free()