Re-import, re-append button
In order to ease updating imported or appended objects i suggest to make a function to redo that on click. The objects that are appended or imported could have a hidden property whether they are imported/appended or not and the source location. The button could be placed in the context rightclick menu in the outliner. The function should change the object entirely for the first iteration of development. The further improvement could be updating some specific datablocks, such as mesh, material, modifiers, etc. Blender should ask us how we want to update current item after selecting the "re-import/re-append object" item in the context menu.
3 Comments
So the idea here is to treat imported and appended data as if it were linked (at least to some degree)?
I can understand the motivation for imported data, but what advantage does this have over just using linked datablocks (instead of appending them)?
Cannot really tell, but sometimes it happens. May be reappending is not that usual case. It's discussable.
If this idea was realized, it would bring confusion over what's the difference between appending and linking. However, simply separating the "make local" options like I proposed here would give more control over which datablocks will be upated and which won't. It would work differently but would be less confusing I think.