File Splitter

The Blender export application usually writes out all of the 3D objects in a single Blender file into a single export file. However, it is usually desirable to import each individual object into the Jet gaming engine as a separate resource file. The job of the file splitter is to split the objects into separate files as directed by an external text file that links specific object (mesh) names to specific export files. This process has two primary advantages over exporting objects into their own files directly from Blender:

1. It is much easier to simply export everything each time you need to export anything, and to run a single splitter program than it is to manually select the items to export each time, and to the identify the name of the export file you wish to create with that export operation. Both steps are manual and error prone, which the file splitting steps are not.
2. You can easily have one 3D object appear in more than one final export file, or you can have some objects (usually construction aids or previous versions not yet discarded) not appear in any output.

Change History

This application has changed as follows:

The Split File Layout

The split control file is named: BlenderExportSplitCtrl.txt. The demo file has the following contents:

FILE: ExportGridCube.txt
	GridCubeObject
FILE: ExportSmallCube.txt
	FaceObject
	TheCubeObject
File ends.

Each line that starts with the word FILE: defines a separate output file.

Each line after a file definition line defines the name of a mesh object to be exported to that tile.

The line File ends. defines the end of the file.

Mesh names may appear under as many files as you wish, or may be excluded from the control file altogether. Each time the file splitter application runs, it replaces all the existing export files with new ones based on the current contents of the main Blender export file created by the Blender Python script. For this reason, it is best to always export and split the whole Blender file so you don't inadvertently create empty files with the splitter application.