Using Blender as a Python Module

[upretirementman]

This is an experimental option to be able to import blender into python and access its modules, importers, exporters rendering, video editing... etc.

This is mainly limited to features which can be usable in background mode, so you cant for instance do OpenGL preview renders.

This topic is from Blender Programmer ideasman42 on Blender wiki.blender.org.

Directions on how to do this for Linux, Windows, and OSX:

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Ideasman42/BlenderAsPyModule

Testing

This allows 'bpy' to be imported from python or other applications/IDE's which embed python, eg:

python -c "import bpy ; bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True)"

[jdonald]

@upretirementman

This is a response to your Python 3 inquiry in the Mavericks thread: https://community.leapmotion.com/t/10-9-maverick-and-leap-motion/101

With the underscore in _LeapPython.so it sounds like you're using an old reference. Please see https://developer.leapmotion.com/articles/generating-a-python-3-3-0-wrapper-with-swig-2-0-9 for the latest instructions on building a Python 3 wrapper.

Furthermore, if your intention to use a Python 3 Leap plugin with Blender, note that this works fairly easily on Windows but we currently don't have a good solution for Mac OS X. Due to Blender linking with Python statically on OS X, it does not seem native code plugins with Python do not work inside Blender. The alternative approaches proposed so far include communicating with the Leap service through websockets, shelling out to a helper program, or rebuilding Blender with Python linked dynamically.

[upretirementman]

After doing some searching of the Python 3.3 import software and using the error messages created, it looks like the python 3.3 uses different specifications for importing dynamic libraries than python 2.0 series. In the python 3.3 folder the imp.py script has notations that a lot of it is deprecated and to use the importlib module instead. So I will be looking into that for now.

Also note that I now use Swig for Mac version 1.3.11 and Xcode 5 series instead of Xcode 3.0 series.

[upretirementman]

I wonder if there is a way to use Jason in Python 3.3.4 in Blender to access the frames from Leap, bypassing the dynamic library?