How to batch convert between file formats?

Question

I have about thousands of files I need to convert into from one format to another. Both formats are handled by existing add-ons..

I assume the script process would go something like this:

• Select every source file in a directory and it's sub-directories
• Store the path and filename of the source format.
• Delete everything in scene and import the file
• Export the file to the destination format with the same path and the same filename as the original file, with a different extension.
• move on to the next item

The problem is that I have very little experience with Blender, and Python is not my area. The manual solution of importing and exporting works perfectly fine, as there is no need for anything to be modified.

Answer 1

Set the path variable and change the import line to whatever importer you are using :

import bpy
import os

path = 'C:/path/to/files/'  # set this path

for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path):
    for f in files:
        if f.endswith('.meshdata') :
            mesh_file = os.path.join(path, f)
            obj_file = os.path.splitext(mesh_file)[0] + ".obj"

            bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='SELECT')
            bpy.ops.object.delete()

            bpy.ops.import_scene.obj(filepath=mesh_file) # change this line

            bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='SELECT')

            bpy.ops.export_scene.obj(filepath=obj_file)

Answer 2

This script is an example of how you can loop over all files and convert from one format to another.

This example converts all .obj files to .x3d, but changing the formats is trivial.

CONVERT_DIR = "/my/test/directory"

import os

def file_iter(path, ext):
    for dirpath, dirnames, filenames in os.walk(path):
        for filename in filenames:
            ext = os.path.splitext(filename)[1]
            if ext.lower().endswith(ext):
                yield os.path.join(dirpath, filename)

import bpy


def reset_blend():
    bpy.ops.wm.read_factory_settings(use_empty=True)

def convert_recursive(base_path):
    for filepath_src in file_iter(base_path, ".obj"):
        filepath_dst = os.path.splitext(filepath_src)[0] + ".x3d"

        print("Converting %r -> %r" % (filepath_src, filepath_dst))

        reset_blend()

        bpy.ops.import_scene.obj(filepath=filepath_src)
        bpy.ops.export_scene.x3d(filepath=filepath_dst)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    convert_recursive(CONVERT_DIR)