ShapeScript files can get quite large for complicated scenes, and you may find that there are common shapes that you wish to across multiple ShapeScript files. The import command can help with both of these problems:
import "MyShape.shape"
Here we’ve used import to load an external ShapeScript file and evaluate it inside the calling script. Any symbols that are defined in the imported file will become available inside the scope in which it is loaded, and any geometry created by the imported file will be displayed.
You can import the same file several times in the same script, and import statements can appear inside loops, if statements or blocks. If you don’t want the geometry inside an imported file to be displayed immediately, you can place the import inside a define statement:
define ball {
import "Ball.shape"
}
In this way, the loaded shape is bound to a symbol of your choice, and can be used a later point in the script. This approach also prevents any symbols defined in the imported script from leaking outside into the calling script’s global scope.
Note: As with textures, the first time you try to import a file you may see an access permission warning.
The import command is not limited to loading .shape files. It can load models in many of the export formats supported by ShapeScript. Imported models can be used just like imported script files:
define rocket {
texture "Rocket.png"
import "Rocket.obj"
}
Depending on the format, imported models may include their own materials. Uncolored / untextured models will inherit the current ShapeScript material properties.
In addition to scripts and standard model formats, text files can be imported as a string value.
define text import "Text.txt"
Imported strings can then be displayed directly, or further processed using ShapeScript’s string functions:
for line in text.lines {
print (trim line)
}
As well as plain text, ShapeScript also supports importing JSON files as structured data:
define data import "Data.json"
It can sometimes be useful to generate the name of an imported file dynamically. For example if you have multiple numbered files to import, you might want to generate the names programatically.
You can do this using the text interpolation feature. The following code, for example, will load the files “Shape1.shape”, “Shape2.shape”… up to “Shape10.shape”:
for n in 1 to 10 {
import "Shape" n ".shape"
}