The Automation dialog lets you define, save, and execute sequences of operations (called steps) on your project — either one at a time or in batch across many files or slider sets.

Open it from the File menu in Outfit Studio (Open Automation..., or press Ctrl+Shift+A).

Use the dropdown at the top of the dialog to select a previously saved automation script. Scripts are stored as .xml files in the Automations folder next to Outfit Studio.

Expand the Placeholder Variables panel to define key/value pairs. Any text field in your steps can reference these using {{KEY}} syntax — when the automation runs, every occurrence of {{KEY}} is replaced with the corresponding value.

For example, if you define BODY = CBBE, then a step with target meshes set to {{BODY}}Body would resolve to CBBEBody at execution time.

Up to 10 variables can be defined. Variables are saved with the script.

• Execute: Runs every active (checked) step in order on the current project. If a batch mode is enabled, it repeats the steps for each batch item.
• Execute Selected (right-click a step): Runs only that single step on the current project. This does not use batch mode.

If a step fails, you are prompted whether to continue with the remaining steps or abort.

Saved scripts can also be run without opening the dialog by using the command-line automation flag:

OutfitStudio --automation "Script Name" [batch inputs...]

Use the saved script name without the .xml extension. For batch scripts, positional arguments become batch inputs:

• Folder Scan: files or directories to process.
• Slider Sets: slider set or project names to process.

Non-batch scripts ignore positional arguments.

Expand the Batch Operation panel to process multiple files or slider sets automatically. Choose a mode:

Steps run once on the currently loaded project.

Repeats the automation for every matching file in a folder.

For each file, the project is cleared, the file is imported, the automation steps run, and the project is cleared again. The following variables are automatically available in addition to your custom ones:

Repeats the automation for every matching installed slider set (from BodySlide projects).

After applying the filter, a checklist dialog appears letting you select which slider sets to process. For each selected set, the project is loaded from the slider set file, the automation steps run, and the project is cleared.

Type a new name into the script dropdown and click Save to create a new script. The dialog starts with an empty step list.

Right-click the step list to open the context menu:

• Add Step: Inserts a new step below the currently selected step. If no step is selected, adds to the end of the list.
• Remove Step: Deletes the selected step.
• Move Up / Move Down: Reorders the selected step. You can also press Ctrl+Up / Ctrl+Down in the step list.
• Execute Selected: Runs only the selected step (without batch mode).

Each step has an Active checkbox. Inactive steps are skipped during execution.

Every step has these fields:

| Target Meshes | Comma-separated list of shape names this step applies to. If empty, the step applies to all non-reference shapes. | | Regex | If checked, the target meshes field is treated as a regular expression matched against shape names. | | Note | A free-text note for your reference. Shown in error messages if the step fails. |

For Set Extra Data and Delete Extra Data, leaving Target Meshes empty targets the NIF root node instead of all non-reference shapes.

The Type field opens a popup listing the step types grouped by category. The categories start collapsed, so all of them fit on screen at once; expand one to see its types, or type into the Filter box at the top to narrow the list to matching names. Filtering expands the remaining groups automatically, and pressing Enter picks the first match. Arrow keys move through the tree and Down from the filter box jumps into it.

The dialog currently exposes 63 step types.

Many of the geometry, slider and mask steps work off the current vertex mask. The mask is a per-shape state of the loaded project, not part of a step, so it survives from one step to the next — build it with the Masks steps first and then run the step that consumes it.

Resets the entire project to a blank state, removing all shapes, sliders, and data.

Loads a reference (base) shape from a file.

Adds shapes and sliders from another slider set project file into the current project.

Designates an existing shape in the project as the reference (base) shape, or clears the current reference when Unset Reference is enabled.

Removes the current reference shape from the project, keeping all other shapes and slider data intact.

Turns the currently applied slider values into a single conversion slider, the automation counterpart of Slider ▸ Conversion ▸ Make Conversion Reference. The deformed reference becomes the new base geometry and the new slider undoes that deformation, so a project built on the old body can be retargeted to the new one.

Requires at least one non-zero slider value. All other sliders of the project are deleted, so put this step after the ones that set up the slider values and before anything that creates sliders you want to keep.

Deletes shapes from the project. Uses the Target Meshes filter to select which shapes to delete.

Renames a single shape.

Creates a copy of target shapes with a new name.

Changes target shape triangle assignments from one body partition to another.

Matching triangle assignments are updated and any empty partitions are removed afterward.

Runs Outfit Studio's bad-bones fixer and applies the recommended corrections automatically to bones with inconsistent NIF transforms.

Pushes target geometry or slider morphs outward to reduce clipping against the current reference shape.

Requires a reference shape.

Mirrors target shapes along one or more axes.

Imports a mesh file into the project as a new shape.

Toggles geometry flags on target shapes.

Skinned adds or removes skinning data. Dynamic only applies to stream 100 NIFs. Sub Index requires stream 130 or newer. Full Precision only works on editable BSTriShape geometry.

Sets or creates named extra data blocks on target shapes, or on the NIF root node when Target Meshes is empty.

If a block with the same name and type already exists, its value is updated. If the name already exists with a different type, automation logs a warning and does not create a duplicate block.

Deletes named extra data blocks from target shapes, or from the NIF root node when Target Meshes is empty.

Subdivides all shape meshes by splitting every triangle edge, increasing vertex and triangle density. Useful before conforming for better detail.

Recalculates smooth vertex normals and tangents for the target shapes and writes them into the project right away. Unlike the Shape ▸ Recalculate Normals menu item, which only affects the viewport until the project is saved, this step modifies the loaded NIF data directly.

Leaving Target Meshes empty includes the reference shape, which a plain Save Project never touches. Vertices locked through a LOCKEDNORM extra data block are never changed.

Setting any of the three options writes a <Shape> entry for the target shapes into the slider set, so the setting is saved with the project.

Run this step with all sliders at 0. Save Project rewrites the normals of non-reference shapes from the currently displayed meshes, so recalculating while a slider is applied causes the deformed normals to be saved.

Deletes vertices and the triangles that use them from the target shapes, the automation counterpart of Shape ▸ Delete Vertices.

Without a mask every vertex counts as unmasked, so a step with the default settings and no preceding Masks step deletes the whole shape. Bones that no longer have any weights are cleaned up afterwards.

Moves the masked vertices of one shape into a new shape, the automation counterpart of Shape ▸ Separate Vertices.

Needs exactly one target mesh and a non-empty mask.

Merges the geometry of one shape into another one, the automation counterpart of Shape ▸ Merge Geometry. This step names both shapes itself and ignores Target Meshes.

The step fails if the shaders or alpha properties of the two shapes do not match, if they are the same shape, or if the result would exceed the vertex or triangle limit of the NIF version. Mismatching partitions, segments, textures and transforms only produce a warning: matching slots and IDs are reconciled, missing ones are created, the texture paths of the target shape are kept, and mismatching transforms are applied to the geometry of both shapes and cleared, without moving the meshes.

Assigns every triangle of the target shapes to the segment or partition of the nearest reference triangle, clearing the existing ones. Requires a reference shape; leaving Target Meshes empty excludes it. Triangles that could not be matched are reported as a warning.

Mirrors the selected kinds of data across the X axis for the unmasked vertices of the target shapes, the automation counterpart of Shape ▸ Symmetry ▸ Symmetrize Vertices. Masked vertices are left alone, just like in the vertex asymmetry dialog.

Unlike the dialog, which lets you pick individual sliders and bones, the step applies its choice to all of them.

Applies movement, rotation, scaling, and/or inflation to target shapes.

Flips UV coordinates for target shapes.

Applies the shape-to-global transform of each target shape to its geometry and clears it afterwards, so the meshes don't effectively move. This is the same as setting the origin/rotation to 0,0,0 and the scale to 1.0 in the "Coordinates" tab of Shape Properties with the option to recalculate the geometry's coordinates enabled. Shapes without a transform are left alone.

Resets all shape transforms in the project back to identity (zero translation, zero rotation, unit scale).

Bakes the current slider values into the base shape geometry. After this, the shape's rest position reflects the currently applied slider values, and slider values are reset.

Sets slider values without baking them into geometry.

Generates slider data for target shapes by conforming them to the reference shape's slider deformations.

Sets metadata and default values on existing sliders.

Removes a slider from the project.

Imports slider data from files.

Supported formats for single-file mode:

• .osd — Imports all slider diffs from the OSD file, auto-mapping to shapes by target name.
• .tri — Imports all morphs from the TRI file, auto-mapping to shapes by name. UV morphs are preserved.
• .nif / .obj / .fbx — Computes a slider diff by comparing the file's mesh geometry against the current shape. Requires a slider name (first entry of Slider Names, or the filename is used). Applied to all shapes that have a matching mesh in the file.
• .bsd — Imports binary slider data. Requires a slider name (same as above).

Creates a zap slider that removes the unmasked vertices of the target shapes, so the mask marks what to keep. The automation counterpart of Slider ▸ New Zap.

Shapes without any unmasked vertices are skipped.

Creates a new slider from the combined result of the currently applied slider values, the automation counterpart of Slider ▸ New Combined Slider.

Creates a copy of a slider, including its data for all shapes.

Inverts the morph data of the given sliders for the target shapes.

Removes the slider morph data of the target shapes without deleting the sliders themselves.

Copies bone weights from the reference shape to target shapes.

Removes bones or bone weights.

Adds a new custom bone to the project.

Modifies an existing custom bone's transform and parent.

Removes all bone weight data from target shapes. If no target shapes are specified, removes skinning from all shapes.

Applies a loaded pose to the mesh geometry, permanently deforming it.

Adds bone references from the loaded skeleton to every shape of the project, the automation counterpart of Bones ▸ Add Bone. Unlike Add Custom Bone, this only references bones that already exist in the skeleton.

Copies bone weights vertex by vertex from the reference shape, the automation counterpart of Bones ▸ Transfer Selected Weights. Unlike Copy Bone Weights, which searches for nearby reference vertices, this needs the target shape to have the same vertex count as the reference.

Leaving Target Meshes empty excludes the reference shape. Shapes with a different vertex count are skipped with a warning.

Recalculates one of a bone's two transforms from the other one, the automation counterpart of Bones ▸ Set Bone as Skin / Set Bone as Node.

Sets one or more shader values on target shapes.

Properties that do not apply to the current shader or NIF version are skipped.

Sets one or more texture slots on target shapes.

Only shapes with a BSShaderTextureSet-capable shader, and only slots valid for the current NIF version, are updated.

Saves the current project as a BodySlide slider set.

Batch-specific options (only relevant in Slider Sets batch mode):

Exports the project to a file.

Batch-specific option:

Clears the current vertex mask on target shapes. Uses Target Meshes to choose which shapes to clear.

Loads a vertex mask from a mask file and applies it to target shapes.

Writes the current mask of the target shapes into a named entry of an XML mask file, ready to be read back by Load Mask.

Inverts the mask of the target shapes: fully masked vertices become unmasked and the other way around.

Moves the mask border of the target shapes outwards or inwards, like the Mask ▸ Grow/Shrink Mask menu items.

Each iteration first masks or unmasks the welded duplicates of the border vertices and only moves a full ring when there are none left, so the first iteration on a fresh mask usually only closes UV seams.

Replaces the mask of the target shapes with the vertices that have a weight greater than zero for any of their bones. Everything else becomes unmasked.

Same as above, but only for the given bones.

Replaces the mask of the target shapes with the vertices that the given slider has morph data for.

Masks everything except the asymmetric parts of the target shapes, so the steps that follow only work on those. This matches Shape ▸ Symmetry ▸ Mask Asymmetric Vertices/Triangles, where the mask protects the symmetric part of the mesh.

Like the menu items, this step only ever adds to the mask — it never unmasks anything, so it narrows an existing mask instead of replacing it.

Deletes unreferenced NIF nodes from the current project.

These two step types have no menu equivalent; they exist to make longer scripts easier to follow and to parameterize.

Defines a {{KEY}} placeholder for the steps that follow.

The placeholder variables from the collapsible section at the bottom of the dialog are substituted once before the run, so a name that is already defined there has been replaced everywhere by the time the step executes and cannot be overridden — the step logs a warning in that case. In batch mode the runtime variables are reset for every file or slider set.

Writes a message to the automation log.

• Use placeholder variables to make scripts reusable. For example, define {{OUTPUT}} as your output folder and reference it in export paths.
• In batch mode, combine {{BATCH_NAME}} with custom variables to build dynamic paths: {{OUTPUT}}/{{BATCH_NAME}}_modified.nif.
• Use the Regex option on target meshes to apply a step to shapes matching a pattern, e.g. Body|Hands|Feet.
• Steps that fail show the step's Note in the error dialog — use notes to remind yourself what each step does.
• The Execute Selected right-click option is useful for testing individual steps before running the full script.