Display path and allow reloading from different path

[Andlon]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Currently, at least as far as I can tell, there's no way to tell which files are actually being used for a given mesh sequence. This would be particularly important for the Streaming mode, as it is important to know which files are actually being loaded. However, it seems useful also for cached sequences, since it's currently not clear exactly which files get reloaded when a sequence is reloaded from disk.

It would also be supremely useful to be able to reload a different mesh sequence, but keep the object otherwise intact (so materials etc. are preserved). Often I have several data sets and I want to switch between them.

Describe the solution you'd like
A "file path" or similar option in the Object Properties -> Mesh Sequence options. This could either be a read-only property, accompanied by a button like "Reload from New File Path", or something else.

Describe alternatives you've considered
As far as I know, there is no alternative in the UI for finding out the current file path. For changing file paths, one can import the files as a new object, though this is a little tedious if one needs to tune object properties.

[neverhood311]

Thanks for the suggestion.

Your first idea (just show the folder path) should be fairly straightforward to implement.

The second idea is a bit more involved. Let me think about that one.

[neverhood311]

I just released an alpha version (2.2.0.alpha.1) which includes the path to the mesh sequence directory (no ability to switch directories, though). If you have some time to try it out, I'd love to get your feedback.

[Andlon]

Hi @neverhood311, that sounds great! Sorry, I haven't meant to ignore your request, I've just been very busy (both at work and in personal life), and I don't have a good set of files easily available to test with at the moment. I'll see if I can make some time for it at some point, but I unfortunately need to place it further down on my list of priorities at the moment.

[neverhood311]

No problem, I totally understand. This addon isn't my day job, so it often gets deprioritized too.

[jjcasmar]

I was going to add a new issue/feature request, but I think my request is tied to this one.
I have some simulations that generate several sequences of objs, so I have to load each of those sequences. I import them using the stream option because the files are big.

When I simulate again, I have to remove the old imported sequences and import them again because the names of the files may have changed. It would be nice to have an option to reevaluate the list of files in this situation.

Iirc, in cache mode you can reload the sequence, not sure if this reevaluates the list of files and then reload them, or if it simply reload the current list of files. In any case, this option doesn't even exist for stream sequences.