Query selected objects without bpy.context

Archive Python API
1

Hey guys :slight_smile:

I have a question about bpy.context.

A quick background to my problem: I have a PySide2 gui, which I am starting in Blender. I want to run some operators from it, which often require a certain context. Of course Blender does not know what the current bpy.context is from my PySide2 Gui.

I already found out, as nicely explained here:
https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.ops.html
that you can override the context in which an operator is running by passing a dictionary as the first argument.

This way I got the operator bpy.ops.wm.alembic_export() running from my PySide2 Gui. It even works on my current selection. It was enough to just run the operator in the 3DViewport by passing a dictionary with the following keys:
override = {‘window’: window, ‘screen’: screen, ‘area’: area}. (As explained in the link, on how to run an operator in a specific window)

While this is all working fine by now I am still interested in a couple of things:

A) Is there a way to get the current selected objects without having a suitable current context available? (via bpy.data ? via an operator that is running in another window?)
B) Is there a way to pretend to be in a ceratin context, for example the one of the 3DVIEW for actions that don’t support the overriding of context?

Thanks guys and I hope you can somehow enjoy a cozy christmas!

2

You can have multiple scenes and multiple view layers in your file, each with their own selection. You can have the same object shared between view layers, selected in one but not the other. Thus object selection requires context.

1 Like
3

Thanks for your answer!
I am then wondering if there is a way to query the selected objects on the basis of a view layer object or from a scene object, or maybe a 3d viewport window? Or as I stated in the question Is there a way to pretend to be in a ceratin context, for example the one of the 3DVIEW for actions that don’t support the overriding of context?