Blender Python: Detect New Scene?

Question

Very simple question from a very new add-on developer. How would one go about detecting when a scene is started fresh or loaded from file?

For example, if you have some add-on preference variable that is related to the scene in some way, you may want to process that variable when the scene is dramatically changed. I believe this would primarily happen when a new scene is started or when one is loaded from file. Anyone know of a simple way to detect when that happens?

Thanks for any information

Answer 1

You can use application handlers which can be executed before or after specific operations. For your case there is a load_post handler, kicking in after the blend file is loaded and even a load_pre handler kicking in before the file is loading. Simple add-on example using bpy.app.handlers.load_post handler:

bl_info = {
    "name": "Load Handler",
    "author": "Your Name Here",
    "version": (0, 1),
    "blender": (2, 80, 0),
    "category": "Development"
}

import bpy
from bpy.app.handlers import persistent


@persistent
def load_post_handler(dummy):
    print("Event: load_post", bpy.data.filepath)

def register():
    bpy.app.handlers.load_post.append(load_post_handler)

def unregister():    
    bpy.app.handlers.load_post.remove(load_post_handler)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()