Path Maker
The "Path Maker" add-on allows you to write tags in some output paths. Tags will be replace at render time by a string generated with a line of code, a python script or an hardcoded string.
It supports:
- The "Output Path" in the output properties panels
- The "Base Path" in the file output compositor nodes
- The "filepath" in the collection exporters (you'll have to use the Path Maker buttons to make it work though)
Token Type dropdown:
- Expression: single line python expression (example: bpy.context.scene.name)
- Path: Hard coded path (example: toto\hello\world)
- Script: Path to a python script that will be interpreted (the script has to print the value)
For example: The tag <filename> can be replace by "bpy.path.display_name_from_filepath(bpy.data.filepath)" so that an Output Path like "C:/hello/<filename>/world" will now be "C:/hello/file_name/world".
What's New
1.3.5 February 1st, 2025
- Fix: error not displaying correctly
- Fix: not rendering if a tag that is not used creates an error
- Fix: not rendering if scene.node_tree does not exist
Thanks for the addon! I put 5 stars, because I want to believe that this addon will become a worker. I really lack the function of the templates/placeholder in the output path. But, unfortunately, the addon does not work as it should. I created 2 tags: <cam> - bpy.context.scene.camera.name, and <sc> - bpy.context.Scene.name. If you insert one of them in the output field, it works. If you insert both, then it does not work. The output path looks like this C:\tmp<sc><cam> I render 2 frames of animation and receive such a message to "Render error (Invalid argument) cannot save: 'C:\tmp\scene_test_<cam>_0001.jpg". Only 1 tag is work ("scene_test" is the name of the scene). And it works only if 1 tag is spelled out in the settings, if 2 tags are spelled out, and only 1 tag is inserted in the output path field, it also gives an error. Blender version 4.2
Thanx! Nice and very simple addon! Working through pre- and post- render handlers! No docs needed, basically theres only one option for editing.
This addon is exactly what I was looking for, and I was so glad to find it as a listed extension. Thank you! Makes the pipeline and versioning way smoother and aligned with the standards of other CGI and compositing software. I have to say that for me it was a bit cryptic to understand how to use the expression, but thanks to LLMs that was an easy ask. I would love to see the implementation of easy-to-add commonly used expressions. In my case I set up expressions for camera name, scene name, view layer name, filename, and version (last 4 digits of the filename, in my case "_v03" or "_v04" etc.
Only issue I encountered so far is that in one file, all tokens keep being replaced by the expression's result, and so I end up having to manually update every time I reopen the file, which kind of defies the purpose. Haven't really understood why this seem to happen with one specific file yet.