diff --git a/hecl/blender/BlenderConnection.cpp b/hecl/blender/BlenderConnection.cpp
index 6a94981a1..79a2c1e85 100644
--- a/hecl/blender/BlenderConnection.cpp
+++ b/hecl/blender/BlenderConnection.cpp
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 #include <algorithm>
 #include <chrono>
 #include <thread>
+#include <mutex>
 
 #include <hecl/hecl.hpp>
 #include <hecl/Database.hpp>
diff --git a/hecl/blender/BlenderConnection.hpp b/hecl/blender/BlenderConnection.hpp
index eb7df41b7..77ff9367e 100644
--- a/hecl/blender/BlenderConnection.hpp
+++ b/hecl/blender/BlenderConnection.hpp
@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ private:
     size_t _writeBuf(const void* buf, size_t len);
     void _closePipe();
     void _blenderDied();
+
 public:
     BlenderConnection(int verbosityLevel=1);
     ~BlenderConnection();
diff --git a/hecl/blender/hecl_blendershell.py b/hecl/blender/hecl_blendershell.py
index 06303304d..57d35745b 100644
--- a/hecl/blender/hecl_blendershell.py
+++ b/hecl/blender/hecl_blendershell.py
@@ -370,6 +370,7 @@ try:
 
         elif cmdargs[0] == 'SAVE':
             bpy.context.user_preferences.filepaths.save_version = 0
+            print('SAVING %s' % loaded_blend)
             if loaded_blend:
                 if 'FINISHED' in bpy.ops.wm.save_as_mainfile(filepath=loaded_blend, check_existing=False, compress=True):
                     writepipeline(b'FINISHED')
diff --git a/hecl/include/hecl/hecl.hpp b/hecl/include/hecl/hecl.hpp
index 75c6836dc..dee1601ab 100644
--- a/hecl/include/hecl/hecl.hpp
+++ b/hecl/include/hecl/hecl.hpp
@@ -44,7 +44,6 @@ class Project;
 struct DataSpecEntry;
 }
 
-
 extern unsigned VerbosityLevel;
 extern logvisor::Module LogModule;
 
@@ -1180,6 +1179,28 @@ public:
 
 };
 
+/**
+ * @brief Mutex-style centralized resource-path tracking
+ *
+ * Provides a means to safely parallelize resource processing; detecting when another
+ * thread is working on the same resource.
+ */
+class ResourceLock
+{
+    static bool SetThreadRes(const ProjectPath& path);
+    static void ClearThreadRes();
+    bool good;
+public:
+    operator bool() const { return good; }
+    static bool InProgress(const ProjectPath& path);
+    ResourceLock(const ProjectPath& path) { good = SetThreadRes(path); }
+    ~ResourceLock() { if (good) ClearThreadRes(); }
+    ResourceLock(const ResourceLock&) = delete;
+    ResourceLock& operator=(const ResourceLock&) = delete;
+    ResourceLock(ResourceLock&&) = delete;
+    ResourceLock& operator=(ResourceLock&&) = delete;
+};
+
 /**
  * @brief Search from within provided directory for the project root
  * @param path absolute or relative file path to search from
diff --git a/hecl/lib/hecl.cpp b/hecl/lib/hecl.cpp
index ff9eb0ba7..0fcfb8dc4 100644
--- a/hecl/lib/hecl.cpp
+++ b/hecl/lib/hecl.cpp
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
 #include "hecl/hecl.hpp"
+#include <thread>
+#include <mutex>
+#include <unordered_map>
 
 #ifdef WIN32
 #include <windows.h>
@@ -84,6 +87,38 @@ void SanitizePath(std::wstring& path)
     });
 }
 
+static std::mutex PathsMutex;
+static std::unordered_map<std::thread::id, ProjectPath> PathsInProgress;
+
+bool ResourceLock::InProgress(const ProjectPath& path)
+{
+    std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lk(PathsMutex);
+    for (const auto& p : PathsInProgress)
+        if (p.second == path)
+            return true;
+    return false;
+}
+
+bool ResourceLock::SetThreadRes(const ProjectPath& path)
+{
+    std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lk(PathsMutex);
+    if (PathsInProgress.find(std::this_thread::get_id()) != PathsInProgress.cend())
+        LogModule.report(logvisor::Fatal, "multiple resource locks on thread");
+
+    for (const auto& p : PathsInProgress)
+        if (p.second == path)
+            return false;
+
+    PathsInProgress[std::this_thread::get_id()] = path;
+    return true;
+}
+
+void ResourceLock::ClearThreadRes()
+{
+    std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lk(PathsMutex);
+    PathsInProgress.erase(std::this_thread::get_id());
+}
+
 bool IsPathPNG(const hecl::ProjectPath& path)
 {
     FILE* fp = hecl::Fopen(path.getAbsolutePath().c_str(), _S("rb"));