Doc:Manual/Introduction/Installing Blender

From BlenderWiki

[edit] Installing the Binaries

Blender is available both as a binary executable and as source code on the Foundation site (http://www.blender.org/). At the main page click on the 'Downloads' section.

For the online manual hosted at the wiki, you can generally use the most recent version of Blender located at the Blender Foundation website (although all of the features from the newest release version may not be fully updated). If you are using a published version of this manual it is recommended that you use the Blender version included on the Guide CD-ROM. In the following text, whenever "download" is mentioned, those using the book should instead retrieve Blender from the CD-ROM.

[edit] Downloading and installing the binary distribution

The binary distributions are provided for 6 primary operating system families (please click your OS for more installation info):

• Windows
• Linux
• MacOSX
• FreeBSD
• Irix
• Solaris

Some unofficial distributions may exist for other operating systems. It's not supported by the Blender Foundation, you should report directly to their maintainers:

• MorphOS

Binaries for the Linux operating systems are provided for two different hardware architectures x86 (Intel and AMD processors) and PowerPC, and the choice between statically linked or dynamically loaded libraries.

The difference between the dynamic and the static binaries is important. The static binaries have the OpenGL libraries compiled in. This makes Blender run on your system without using hardware accelerated graphics. Use the static version if the dynamic version fails! OpenGL is used in Blender for all drawing, including menus and buttons. For this, you will need OpenGL installed on your system. This dependency makes a proper and compliant OpenGL installation at your system a requirement. Generally speaking integrated graphics chips and older low end graphics cards will perform poorly or not at all with Blender due to their poor support for OpenGL. (It is ofter possible to work around the poor OpenGL support of such cards by using software based OpenGL solutions such as by turning down or off hardware acceleration on Windows, or using software MESA 3D on Linux). Running Blender using the blender-softwaregl script in the distribution may help in this case.

Rendering is done by the Blender rendering engine in core memory and by the main CPU of your machine, so an unsupported graphics card will not have an impact if you use the machine only for rendering (as would be the case for a rendering farm).

The installer will create files and several folders in two locations on your computer: one set of folders is for Blender itself, and the other is a user set of folders for your user data. You must have administrator authorization to create these. The folders are:

• .blender - configuration information (mostly prompts in your native language)
• blendcache_.B - temporary space for physics simulation information (softbodies, cloth, fluids)
• plugins - added functionality for textures and sequencing
• scripts - python scripts that extend Blender functionality
• tmp - temporary output, intermediate renders

[edit] Python, the Scripting Language

Python is a general purpose scripting language and there is a special interface to access all of Blender's internal functions from that language. Scripts are written in this language that extend the functionality of Blender, without having to re-compile and link the binary distribution. These scripts are written by user-programmers. The recommended version of Python is normally included and installed with the distribution, however you may also download and install it directly from the official Python website, and install it separately. Most functions do not rely on Python; a notable exception is the Help menu which opens a web browser pointed to a specific location. Help text is not bundled into Blender; you must download the latest wiki or pdf user manuals, found here or at www.blender.org.

In general, wherever you install Python, you need to establish an operating system environment variable PYTHONPATH and point it to the Blender Scripts directory where python modules are installed, e.g. "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\scripts\bpymodules" for Windows machines. Environment Variables on Windows machines are set in the advanced Systems settings in the Control Panel.

When Blender starts on a machine with Blender properly installed, you will see this message in the console window:

 Compiled with Python version 2.5.
 Checking for installed Python... got it!

The above messages means that you have installed Python and have the full development and execution environment, and will be able to access, execute and run all Python scripts that are bundled or available for Blender. If you see a different message, such as:

Could not find platform independent libraries <prefix>
Could not find platform dependent libraries <exec_prefix>
Consider setting $PYTHONHOME to <prefix>[:<exec_prefix>]
'import site' failed; use -v for traceback
Checking for installed Python... No installed Python found.
Only built-in modules are available.  Some scripts may not run.
Continuing happily.

it just means that the full Python is not available. If you want full Python functionality, refer to the Python site for installation instructions.

When you install Blender, you must tell the Python module where you put the scripts. if you choose to put user data in a different location for each user, then the install will put your scripts in the

'C:\Users\<Current User>\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\.blender\scripts' 

folder. If you are upgrading, you probably want to overwrite all your old scripts with the new versions, and not have several versions of the same script hanging around on your PC. The best place, if you will not be editing them, is to put them in your Program Files folder with Blender:

1. Do a search on your machine for a file name with the words 'Scripts'.
2. you will see the scripts folder appear after the initial search....C:\Program Files\Blender-2.46/.blender/scripts or something similar....
3. open the script folder from the search window. you will see all the scripts. You can leave em there or put them on your desktop temporarily....
4. Then go to program files, then to blender foundation, then blender folder, then make a new folder called scripts in the blender folder....
5. Drag and drop or copy all the scripts from where ever you put them into this folder.
6. Make sure to include the 2 module folders in the script file.
7. Then, if you don't know this already, Open Blender
8. In Blender, the top menu bar hides all the preferences. Drag it down and then you will see a button marked file paths.
9. Once you click that File Paths button a set of path fields will be revealed.
10. Go to the script one and drill down to the script folder you just created in blender where you put all the scripts.
11. Then hit the button that says 'Select Script Paths'.
12. Then go to the file menu and save as default setting so Blender will remember that the script folder is where you told it to look Ctrl U
13. Be careful though if you have already done stuff in blender at this point every time you start it it will be the default start up.

[edit] Windows

[edit] Quick Install

Download the file blender-2.##-windows.exe, (2.## being the version number) from the downloads section of the Blender Website. Start the installation by double-clicking the file. This presents you with some questions, for which the defaults should be OK. After setup is complete, you can start Blender right away, or use the entry in the Start menu.

[edit] In-depth Instructions

Download the file blender-2.##-windows.exe from the 'Downloads' section of the Blender Website. Choose to download it (if prompted), select a location and click "Save". Then navigate to the location you saved the file in and double-click it to start the installation. The first dialog presents you with a helpful reminder: You must be logged on to your PC as ADMINISTRATOR! You will be denied access if you do not have the rights (Vista user especially) to the C:/Program Files folder and/or are authorized to install executable software on the PC. I have Vista install as Administrator (in the file explorer, right-click on the downloaded 'blender-2.46-windows.exe' and select 'Run as administrator' from the right-click menu).

The second dialog presents you with the license. You are expected to accept it if you want the installation to go any further. After accepting the license, select the components you wish to install (there is just one, Blender) and the additional actions:

• Add a shortcut to the Start menu,
• Add Blender's icon to desktop,
• associate .blend files with Blender.

By default they are all checked. If you don't want some action to be taken, simply uncheck it. When done, click on Next. The next dialog is where to put the executable files, usually in the C:\Program Files folder.

The next dialog is tricky, and it is where to put user files. These folders save user data, namely temp data like test renders and physics data. Each user of that PC can have their own, or they call all share one.

Select a place to install the files to (the default should be OK), and click Next to install Blender. Press Close when installation is over.

Afterwards you will be asked whether you want to start Blender immediately. Blender is now installed and can be started by means of the Start menu (an entry named "Blender Foundation" will have been created by the setup routine) or by double-clicking a Blender file (*.blend).

After the files are unpacked, Blender will check for required system components, like DLLs, which you must get from Microsoft or your hardware vendor. Most common is a VCRT dll that is/was not bundled with old versions of Windows. After confirmation, you will be able to run Blender!

[edit] Portable Install

If, like many people, you are a) obsessed with Blender, and b) have a USB drive, you'll be glad to know that Blender runs beautifully off a USB key. Just download the .zip version and extract it. You may want to avoid having it store the animation output or other temporary files on the drive, as it may shorten the life, but otherwise, Blender runs fine.

[edit] OSX

[edit] Install

Download the file blender-2.##-OSX-10.3-py2.#-[platform].zip from the downloads section of the Blender Website.

• 2.## is the Blender version,
• 10.3 is the minimum OSX version,
• py2.# is the python version, which should be 2.3 for most users, and
• [platform] is either powerpc or i386 (Intel), depending on which type of processor your Mac has.

Python 2.3 is included with the installation. If you wish to use the latest version of Python, please refer to the Python section on this page.

Extract the download by double-clicking the file. This will open a directory with several files.

Mac Users: Since Blender uses OpenGL to render the user interface and Mac OSX draws the entire Desktop with OpenGL as well, you will need to verify that you have sufficient VRAM in your system. Blender will not run with less than 8MB of VRAM. With up to 16 MB VRAM, you will need to set your display to "1000s of colors" (System Preferences -> Displays).

You now can use Blender by double clicking the Blender icon, or drag the Blender icon to the Dock to add its icon there. Blender starts by default in a small window. Hints and tips about the OSX version can be found in the file OSX tips.rtf in the installation directory. If Blender doesn't launch, make sure that you downloaded the correct version; oftentimes, newcomers to Blender will accidentally download the Python 2.5 version by accident; try the Python 2.3 version if Blender doesn't seem to launch.

[edit] Linux

[edit] Quick Install

Download the file blender-2.##-linux-glibc#.#.#-ARCH.tar.gz from the 'Downloads' section of the Blender Website. Here 2.## is the Blender version, #.#.# is the glibc version installed on your computer and ARCH is the machine architecture--either i386 or powerpc. Pick the one matching your system, keeping in mind the difference between static and dynamic builds.

Unpack the archive to a location of your choice. This will create a directory named blender-2.##-linux-glibc#.#.#-ARCH, in which you will find the blender binary.

To start Blender, open a shell and execute ./blender, of course while running X.

[edit] In-depth Instructions

Download the file blender-2.##-linux-glibc#.#.#-ARCH.tar.gz from the 'Downloads' section of the Blender Website. Choose to download it (if prompted), select a location, and click "Save". Then navigate to the location you wish Blender to install to (e.g. /usr/local/) and unpack the archive (with tar -xzf /path/to/blender-2.##-linux-glibc#.#.#-ARCH.tar.gz). If you like, you can rename the resulting directory from blender-2.##-linux-glibc#.#.#-ARCH to something shorter, e.g. just blender.

Blender is now installed and can be started on the command line by entering /path/to/blender followed by pressing the enter key in a shell. If you are using KDE or Gnome you can start Blender using your file manager of choice by navigating to the blender executable and double-clicking on it.

If you are using the Sawfish window manager, you might want to add a line like ("Blender" (system "blender &")) to your .sawfish/rc file.

[edit] To add program icons for Blender in KDE

1. Select the Menu Editor from the System sub-menu of the K menu.
2. Select the sub-menu labeled Graphics in the menu list.
3. Click the New Item button. A dialog box will appear that prompts you to create a name. Create and type in a suitable name and click OK.
4. You will be returned to the menu list, and the Graphics sub-menu will expand, with your new entry highlighted. In the right section, make sure the following fields are filled in: Name, Comment, Command, Type and Work Path.
   • The Name field should already be filled in, but you can change it here at any time.
   • Fill the Comment field. This is where you define the tag that appears when you roll over the icon.
   • Click the folder icon at the end of the Command field to browse to the Blender program icon. Select the program icon and click OK to return to the Menu Editor.
   • The type should be Application.
   • The work path should be the same as the Command, with the program name left off. For example, if the command field reads /home/user/blender-#.##-linux-glibc#.#.#-ARCH/blender, the Work Path would be /home/user/blender-#.##-linux-glibc#.#.#-ARCH/.
5. Click Apply and close the Menu Editor.

To add a link to Blender on the KPanel, RMB click on a blank spot on the KPanel, then hover over Add. Click Button, then Graphics, and select Blender (or whatever you named the menu item in step 3). Alternately, click on the Configure Panel sub-menu in the K menu, click Add, Button, Graphics, and then Blender.

To add a Desktop icon for Blender, open Konquerer (found on the Panel by default, or in the System sub-menu of the K menu) and navigate to the Blender program icon where you first unzipped it. Click and hold the program icon, and drag it from Konquerer to a blank spot on your Desktop. You will be prompted to Copy Here, Move Here or Link Here; choose Link Here.

[edit] To add program icons for Blender in GNOME

• RMB click the Gnome Main Menu panel (depending on the chosen theme the Icon for the Gnome Main Menu panel could be displayed differently)

and select Edit Menus from the menu of options that appear,

or LMB click on the Gnome Main Menu panel and navigate to System > Preferences > Look and Feel > Main Menu (Your menu layout may be different, if so the next option may help).

• Yet another method for accessing the Gnome Main Menu editor is to open a Terminal/Console/xterm window

and type the following:

• alacarte <PRESS THE ENTER KEY>

• After using one of the above methods (hopefully) the Main Menu editor is displayed.

• Select the Graphics sub-menu from the Main Menu dialog box (or which ever section you want the Blender icon to be contained in),

then click the New Item button.

• In the Create Launcher dialog box, make sure the Type: drop down menu has Application selected.

• In the Create Launcher dialog box also fill in the Name:, Comment: and Command: fields. Fill the Name: field with the program name, for example Blender. You can name this whatever you'd like, this is what appears in the menu, but does not affect the functionality of the program. Fill the Comment: field with a descriptive comment. This is what is shown on the tooltips popups. Fill the Command: field with the full path of the blender program executable/binary, for example, /home/user/blender-#.##-linux-glibc#.#.#-ARCH/blender
• Click the icon button to choose an icon (the icon button by default is to the top left within the Create Launcher dialog box and looks like a platform attached to a spring (depending on the chosen theme) or if no icon is selected by the theme the words No Icon may be displayed.

When the mouse is positioned over the icon button it will highlight). There may or may not be an icon for Blender in your default location. You can make one, or look for the icon that goes with KDE. This should be in directory /opt/kde/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/blender.png (assuming you installed KDE). If your installation directory is different, you can search for it using this command in a Terminal or Console:

• find / -name "blender.png" -print <PRESS THE ENTER KEY>
• If you cannot find your Blender icon then you can use this 2.45 Blender icon for the Gnome Blender icon , just click on the picture and save it to your computer.

• Once you have found the icon you wish to use for Blender, select it in the Browse Icons dialog box and select the Ok button to confirm it.

• Then click the Ok button in the Create Launcher Dialog box to create the new menu and icon item in the Main Menu editor dialog. Make sure the Show item is selected to the left of the newly created Blender entry.
• Click the Close button to close the Main Menu editor.
• Now you should have access to Blender from the Gnome Menu as well as an icon assigned.
• To add a Panel icon for Blender, LMB click on the Gnome Main Menu panel and navigate to the Blender menu entry location in the menu, then RMB click the Blender menu entry and select Add this launcher to panel. Once that is done the Blender icon should appear on the panel.

• To add a Desktop icon for Blender, it is almost the same as adding a Panel icon for Blender but instead of Selecting Add this launcher to panel you instead select Add this launcher to desktop.

[edit] FreeBSD

[edit] Install

Download the file blender-2.##-freebsd-#.#-i386.tar.gz from the downloads section of the Blender Website. Here 2.## is the Blender version currently 2.45, #.# is FreeBSD version and i386 is the machine architecture.

To start blender just open a shell and execute ./blender, of course while running X.

[edit] Irix

[edit] Install

Download the file blender-2.##-irix-6.5-mips.tar.gz from the 'Downloads' section of the Blender Website. Here 2.## is the Blender version (currently 2.45), Python version 2.4, 6.5 is the Irix version and mips is the machine architecture.

To start Blender just open a shell and execute ./blender, of course while running X. Blender was originally developed for the IRIX platform, but is currently not actively being maintained for all IRIX workstation versions. For some workstations performance troubles have been reported.

[edit] Solaris

[edit] Install

Download the file blender-2.##-solaris-2.8-sparc.tar.gz from the 'Downloads' section of the Blender Website. Here 2.## is the Blender version (currently 2.45), Python version 2.5, 2.8 is the Solaris version and sparc is the machine architecture.

Currently no further instructions for Sun Solaris are available. Please use the Blender Website forums for support.

[edit] MorphOS

[edit] Install

Download the unofficial file blender_2.##-mos_bin-yyyymmdd.lha from http://www.yomgui.fr/blender/. Here is 2.## the Blender version (currently 2.45) and yyyymmdd the date stamp. Sources are available on the same link.

Currently no further instructions for MorphOS are available. Please use the Blender Website or MorphOS forums for support.

[edit] Configure your Blender

The generic installation of Blender has tons of features and looks pretty cool, too. When you install an upgrade, there are a few things you want to do:

• 'Point' Blender to resources on your machine
• Copy and regression test custom python scripts
• Tell Blender where sequence and texturing plugins are
• Customize your animation, modelling, material, sequence and scripting desktops
• Define your default animation output directory

The top window contains all the User Preferences - click here for more info, including a File Paths tab that you should set up. Then, go into your \Blender\Scripts\ folder and copy the non-distributed scripts into your .blender\scripts directory. Your texture and sequence plugin pathspecs are under User Preferences, and I keep mine in \Blender\bin folders of their own. Your different desktops are selected from the left drop-down menu at the top of the screen. You can size and reconfigure each of these to suit your particular preference (for newbies, the defaults are just fine). If you click the Render button, to top Output directory is where your animations are put (by default), and you might want to point that to your temp directory. Finally, save all your changes with Ctrl U.

Info:

The key combination Ctrl U saves all the settings of the currently open Blender file into the default Blender file (which is usually called .B.blend). The settings in the default Blender file are read when Blender is first started or when Ctrl X is pressed to start a New file. If you accidentally change the settings in your default Blender file there are a few ways of getting back factory default settings: Goto the File menu and select Load Factory Settings, once that is done press key combination Ctrl U to save the newly loaded factory settings to the Blender default file. If you have an older version of Blender this method may not be available in that case try the second method. Delete the .B.blend file (location can vary between operating systems, check your system) and when Blender is restarted it will recreate it using inbuilt default settings.

[edit] Setting up a user directory structure

If you are new to setting up Blender on your PC, you may want to stay organized, as you will quickly accumulate many models, textures, pictures, .blend files, .zip files, scripts, etc. Mushing them all together in one directory leads to confusion, so it is recommended that you spend a few moments creating a few folders to keep stuff organized. The following is a recommendation based on a few years' experience. There are also free tools to help you manage larger projects (i.e. CVS/Subversion and Verse) but those are beyond the scope of this document.

For casual users, a suggested structure to create on your workstation's hard drive is:

• C:\Blender - a shared folder containing the following subfolders:
  • \bin\ - downloaded binaries (installation exe's) and utilities and add-ons such as Yafray, Python, Gocubic, Panocube, Virtual Dub, etc.
  • \examples\ - work done by others (pictures, movies) for offline study
  • \lib\ - a library of reference material (more on this later)
  • \man\ - User manuals, pdf guides such as Blender Basics, videos from experts, quick reference cards and 'how-to' notes you've made
  • \play\ - your own playground; a directory to save .blend files you're just playing around with
  • \script\ - python scripts that are not distributed with Blender
  • \tmp\ - a temporary place for temporary output; a swap space
  • \tut\ - "how to" tutorials collected from the web. There are many videos and web pages out there (save as a complete web page).
  • \util\ - Blender utilities, such as Make Human, World Forge, and Tree Generator.
  • \work\ - And last but not least, if you actually latch onto a meaningful project that maybe evolves out of the playground, put it here.

[edit] Folder explanations

The main Folder is /Blender/, which I keep on XP under /Shared Downloads/. Create a subfolder /Blender/bin/ to hold the downloaded binaries or .exe install file, as well as any other executable programs associated with Blender, such as Manual/YafRay, and some nifty DLL's you will run across for extending Blender functionality.

• Library: I know you want to create the world, but there are already a bunch of models and stuff out there on the www that other creative people have created. To hold this wealth of pre-built knowledge, create a library (/Blender/lib/) to hold this stuff. Subdirectories under that could be /mesh (to hold blend files of meshes), /tex to hold texture images, and /pic to hold pictures, such as reference pictures. My /blender/lib/mesh folder has subfolders /animal, /human, /machine, and /house, to name a few, holding blend files that contain models of those types of things. The /tex folder has a similar set of folders containing jpg's and even blend files that contain common material settings that are used to color and paint objects. My /tex folder contains /nature, /buildings, /painted, and /metal subdirectories. The /pic folder contains reference pictures of people (Angelina Jolie), faces (my daughter), furniture, my car (a Dodge Viper), and other reference images and concept art that I want to use as reference when modeling.
• Manual and User Guides: Create a /Blender/man/ file to hold user manuals and guide files in either html, word (.doc) and/or .pdf formats. There are a few of these floating around. Also, use this folder to save local copies of these wiki pages for off-line reference.
• Tutorials: There are lots of tutorials around and available for downloading. Create a /Blender/tut/ directory to hold neat tutorials that you find. Some tutorials are hosted by individuals and may disappear, so if you find a tutorial that helps you, download it into this directory.
• Python scripts: Blender uses a scripting language, Python, to extend its functionality. There are dozens of these scripts that can be loaded by Blender. As you find them, save them in a /Blender/script/ directory, as well as any batch files you write for making backups, etc.
• Utilities: Blender has evolved to the point where there are complete programs that create wondrous things. Keep your Make Human and World Forge utilities (for example) in /Blender/util/.
• Just Do It!: So now YOU need some of your own space, my young padawan. Create /Blender/play/ and /Blender/work/ directories to hold play files, and, for when you actually have a meaningful project to work on, a work file. I have used Blender to create a commercial, a documentary on Niger, and a patent (#6,796,205), so I have a subdir under /Blender/work for each of those projects. The /Blender/work/ folder has a folder for each project, and, below that, a set of /tex, /pic, /render, and /wav folders to hold textures, pictures, render output, and sound files, respectively. The actual blend files are kept in the /work/xxx/ folder, where xxx is the short name of the project. The /Blender/play/ folder is loosely organized into Yafray, anim (animation), Lighting, and other folders; basically a trash heap that I rummage around in when I remember that I did something like <insert current problem> but can't remember how to do it again.

[edit] Compiling the Source

There are presently four build systems for making a binary for the different operating systems supported. See this web page for more information about compiling a custom installation binary for your machine. This link is in wiki format and provides more information as well.

[edit] Compiling the Plugins

Plugins are dynamically loaded routines that augment functionality in either texture generation or sequencing (image manipution). See this thread for more information.

[edit] Hardware Support

Blender supports 64-bit hardware platforms running a 64-bit unix operating system, removing the 2Gig addressable memory limit. Work is underway to support a Windows 64-bit OS (call for developer help!)

Blender supports multi-CPU chips, like the Intel Core-Duo and AMD X2 chips by providing a Threads: setting when rendering to work both cores in parallel when rendering an image.

Blender supports a wide variety of pen-based tablets on all major operating systems, in particular OS X, Windows XP, and Linux OSes.

Tips on making Blender run faster and render swifter can be found here.

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