blenderScript.py

import csv
import bpy


N_obj = 10 # Number of objects
dim = 3 # Number of dimensions that the objects hould move in
scale = 10 # Divides positions by scale such that fish are closer togheter

# Set true if you want to import an .obj file that is suppose to be copied
importObject = False
# Set true if you want to copy a object that is selected with cursour
CopySelected = True

# File path for import, the name of the imported object has to contain name_space
obj_loc = '/home/jonas/Desktop/Salmon_texture.obj'

# File path to csv that contains the locations of each object at each time frame.
# Each line contains a frame, first entry is a time stamp or some other information.
# then the next tree entries in that line are [x,y,z] positions 
csv_loc='/home/jonas/Desktop/dataForVisualization.CSV'  
# csv_loc = r'C:\Users\meide\Documents\GitHub\iGEM2020_UiOslo_Norway\dataforVisualization.CSV' # Windows

# The objects that are important or copied will only be found if their name 
# contains this name space, this is not case sensetive
name_space="salmon"


# Imports object 
if importObject:
    # Import N_obj objects and put them in scene
    for i in range(N_obj):
        new_obj = bpy.ops.import_scene.obj(filepath=obj_loc)
        
        
        
if CopySelected:
    # The scene that our object will be placed in
    scn = bpy.context.scene.collection
    
    # Object that we are going to copy, this is selected on the gui by the user
    src_obj = bpy.context.active_object
    
    # For N-1 we copy our object, -1 since we have one from before
    for i in range (N_obj-1):
        new_obj = src_obj.copy()
        # Change name such that the object can be found by it later
        new_obj.name= "Salmon"
        # Copy object data
        new_obj.data = src_obj.data.copy()
        # Clear animation data
        new_obj.animation_data_clear()
        # Set the object in our scene
        scn.objects.link(new_obj)
    



# Array hold the objects that we want to animate
our_objects=[]
# Loop over all objects in scene
for ob in bpy.context.scene.objects:
    # Checks if object has the right name, not case sensitive
    if name_space.lower() in ob.name.lower():
        # Append to array
        our_objects.append(ob)



# Frame number
frame_num=1
# Open csv 
with open(csv_loc, 'r', newline='') as csvfile:
    # our file 
    current_file = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter=',')
    
    # For each line (row) in current file
    for line in current_file:
        # f takes the time stamp first entry, then *pos contains all our positions 
        f, *pos = line
        
        # Convert positional values to floats
        fpos = [float(p) for p in pos]
        # Initialize array to hold coordinates
        coordinates=[]
        
        # For dim*N_obj append positional values for each agent to the coordinate array
        if dim==3:
            i=0
            while (i<(3*N_obj-2)): 
                temp_pos=[fpos[i]/scale,fpos[i+1]/scale,fpos[i+2]/scale]
                coordinates.append(temp_pos)
                i=i+3
                
        #if dimension equals 2 then set z=0
        if dim==2:
            i=0
            while (i<(3*N_obj-1)):  
                temp_pos=[fpos[i]/scale,fpos[i+1]/scale,0]
                coordinates.append(temp_pos)
                i=i+2
        
        # Set frame
        bpy.context.scene.frame_set(frame_num)
        # For each object and position 
        for ob, position in zip(our_objects, coordinates):
            # Assign new position
            ob.location = position
            # Save frame
            ob.keyframe_insert(data_path="location", index=-1)
        # Count frame number
        frame_num+=1
        
        
#Special thanks to zeffii at stackexchange, for a good answer to a similar problem.