I got the same error with forward slashes. Hell, your testcases even mix forward and backslashes, so that wouldn't be an issue.

I can see if I am able to debug this in visual studio, but I don't know if I have the time.

I just don't know if it is an actual bug, or if it is just my setup. Can anyone else get this command to run in a script on their end?

Awesome, we're making progress.

The proper command format (with valid args) is:

>> bpy.ops.import_scene.smd(filepath="I:\\foo.smd", append="NEW_ARMATURE")

It isn't saying I have unrecognized parameters anymore, so that's nice.

But when I am calling this method, I get the same exception shown above. From what I could tell, the filepath isn't being passed into import_smd.py. Any idea why that could be the case?

All I see is this[puu.sh]. Nowhere is the import_scene method called.

Also, I figured out where the commands are outputted (in the info bar), but it does not provide any direct command usage[puu.sh].

And how do I view the command history? The console doesn't seem to show commands that I have chosen through the UI. I can't even get the export to run by itself through the API. If I only include the smd path, I just get this error.

>>> bpy.ops.import_scene.smd(filepath='I:\\Libraries\\Documents\\Exported\\Hero\\Pharah\\Skin\\STANDARD_COMMON\\Classic\\anim_mess\\000000000037.smd')
Error: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.77\scripts\addons\io_scene_valvesource\import_smd.py", line 73, in execute
self.num_files_imported = self.readSMD(filepath, self.properties.upAxis, self.properties.rotMode)
File "C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.77\scripts\addons\io_scene_valvesource\import_smd.py", line 1267, in readSMD
print("\nSMD IMPORTER: now working on",smd.jobName)
File "C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.77\scripts\addons\io_scene_valvesource\utils.py", line 90, in print
builtins.print(" ".join([str(a) for a in args]).encode(sys.getdefaultencoding()).decode(sys.stdout.encoding), end= "\n" if newline else "", flush=True)
TypeError: decode() argument 1 must be str, not None

location: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.77\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py:189

From what I can tell, the filename isn't being set when I call it directly from the API. They must have some different input method in import_scene.

Seems like "Mode" is unrecognized. And I don't see any mode in the only manual it refers to[docs.blender.org], which doesn't even have the listing for smd or bone append modes.

So I am trying to create an import script to import a large amount of animations. I'm looking for the proper syntax to use import_scene.smd, more specifically since I am trying to create a new armature each time, i.e. setting Bone Append Mode to "Make New Armature". I'm rather new with blender scripting, is there any reference that I can use to make this work? I am not 100% sure on how to use the correct parameters.