Adding Other types of Custom Properties

Question

I'm starting to use the amazing, yet simple to use Blender Drivers:

I'm looking for a way to add other Types of Custom Properties than the default floats.

For instance: Color, Vector, String, Boolean or Integer.

From what I've seen it seems to rely on Python.

Answer 1

AFAIK you can set up all but boolean by using that type in the property value field. Eg type in integer 1 and you will notice the slider moves by integers, even if min and max are displayed as reals.

For vector floats, typing in (1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0) gives a list usable for rgba values.

>>> C.scene['prop']
<bpy id property array [4]>

>>> C.object.color = C.scene['prop']

>>> [c for c in C.scene['prop']]
[1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0]

To define them with a script is pretty simple too

import bpy
context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene
scene["someprop"] = False

To get a little more into it, the _RNA_UI is where custom properties keep their data, min, max, default, description

import bpy

context = bpy.context
obj = context.object

rna_ui = obj.get('_RNA_UI')
if rna_ui is None:
    obj['_RNA_UI'] = {}
    rna_ui = obj['_RNA_UI']

obj["prop"] = (1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0)
obj["bool"] = 0

rna_ui["bool"] = {"description":"Bool",
                  "default": True,
                  "min":0,
                  "max":1,
                  "soft_min":0,
                  "soft_max":1}

rna_ui["prop"] = {"description": "Color Prop",
                  "default": (1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0),
                  "min": 0.0,
                  "max": 1.0,
                  "soft_min":0.0,
                  "soft_max":1.0,
                  }

You can add these to your own layout

import bpy
from bpy.props import FloatVectorProperty, BoolProperty

class CarPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the Object properties window"""
    bl_label = "Car Details"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_PT_hello"
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = "object"

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return context.object.get("Capot", False)

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout

        car = context.object
        layout.prop(car, '["Capot"]')
        #bools don't show well (1 or 0 integer)
        layout.prop(car, "switch")
        layout.prop(car, '["bool"]')
        col = layout.column()
        col.prop(car, '["prop"]')
        # car color property
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(car, "car_color")
        # object color rgba
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(car, "color")

def register():
    # define a registered property (available for all Object types size=4 gives rgba)
    bpy.types.Object.car_color = FloatVectorProperty(subtype='COLOR', size=3)
    bpy.types.Object.switch = BoolProperty()
    bpy.utils.register_class(CarPanel)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(CarPanel)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Answer 2

In general press Add or Edit and whatever you type into the Property Value field will be used as the property type (with some exceptions**)

• For Integer ID property:

  

• Float too.

  

• String, type in a word or a couple of words.

  

• The Boolean is really an Integer with two possible states, 0 and 1. You could limit a property by setting Min and Max to 0 and 1. A TickBox would be great for UI, but sadly this isn't available for ID props (not in a convenient way anyway). (Dec 2015)

• For Array types (Color, Vector) there's currently not a convenient interface exposed by Custom Properties panel. By this I mean you can make a custom property by setting the value, by typing in (0,0,0) or [0,0,0] or even just 0,0,0

  

  But you won't get a UI element like regular bpy.props

  • FloatVectorProperty (subtype="COLOR")
  • BoolProperty.

Id properties : http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Source/Data_System/ID_Property