Blender add-on: DumpMesh

DumpMesh is an add-on that will write a lot of information about a currently selected mesh object in the form of Python code. The resulting code is stored as a text object in the Text Editor.
Of course it is far more effective to store an object by saving the .blend file and reuse it afterward but the purpose of this add-on is to get access to mesh data in a form that can easily be used in other add-ons, for example as the basis of some parameterized object, where creating lists of vertex coordinates by hand is very tedious and error prone. It therefore produces Python definitions for

• a list of vertex coordinates
• a list of edges
• a list of faces
• a dictionary with edge seams
• a dictionary with edge creases

A small, shortened, example of what is produced is shown below:

verts = [
 (-1.0, -1.0, -1.0),
 (-1.0, -1.0, 1.0),
...
 (1.0, 1.0, 1.0),
]

faces = [
 (1, 3, 2, 0),
 (3, 7, 6, 2),
...
 (5, 7, 3, 1),
]

edges = [
 (0, 1),
 (1, 3),
...
 (0, 4),
]

seams = {
 0: True,
 1: True,
...
 11: False,
}

crease = {
 0: 0.0,
 1: 1.0,
...    
 11: 0.0,
}

By default it also produces code for an operator that recreates a mesh object based on the values in the lists and dictionaries mentioned above.
The latter may sound a bit strange, an add-on that produces code for an add-on, but this way it is very simple to verify that the dumped data indeed produces the desired object when used. Your work flow may look like this:

• Select the object to dump in the 3D view,
• Select Object -> DumpMesh, the code will show up in the text editor,
• Run the script in the text editor by clicking Run script, it will create a new menu entry
• Select Add -> Mesh -> CreateMesh, and a duplicate mesh should be added to your scene.

If satisfied with the result you can save the generated code for reuse in your own add-on.

Availability

The code for DumpMesh is available on GitHub. Just download the file and use File -> User preferences -> Add-ons -> Install from file in the usual manner. In the code I have embedded the code for the CreateMesh operator as base64 encoded strings. This is in my opinion the simplest way to store a chunk of Python in antother Python program without bothering about quotes of all kinds. The original non-encoded version is on GitHub as well.