Difficulties with the second part "Install the Required Dependencies"

[MastSim93sCATEopn]

Hi! Thanks for this software. I am a PhD student, and one of my research aim is the accessibility and diffusion of low-cost methods for geological studies. I am writing here for my personal difficulty with the installation. The procedure in the second part is unclear to me. I am not very good at scripting and coding. Could you enrich the front page with a video tutorial? Thanks for your attention.

[bsomps]

That is a good idea I can add a video for installation instructions. A lot of this comes down to understanding Blender rather than python code. If you are running windows, you will need to make sure you run the program as an administrator (right-click instead of double clicking to open and hit "run as administrator") Once Blender is open you will see a horizontal toolbar at the top of the window. Just to the right of the "Help" button you will see your workspaces; "Layout - Modeling - Sculpting - UV Editing ect... find and click the "Scripting" workspace. Once here click on "New" (the plus button) then paste this exact text:

import subprocess
import sys
import os
from pathlib import Path
import pkg_resources

def is_package_installed(package):
    try:
        pkg_resources.get_distribution(package)
        return True
    except pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound:
        return False

def install_package(py_exec, lib_dir, package):
    if is_package_installed(package.split("==")[0]):
        print(f"{package} is already installed. Skipping...")
        return

    try:
        print(f"Installing {package}...")
        result = subprocess.run([py_exec, "-m", "pip", "install", f"--target={lib_dir}", package], check=True, capture_output=True, text=True)
        print(result.stdout)
        print(f"Successfully installed {package} to {lib_dir}.")
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
        print(f"Failed to install {package}.")
        print(e.output)

def ensure_packages():
    # Get the path to blenders Python executable
    py_exec = sys.executable

    # Get the path to the lib directory
    lib_dir = os.path.join(Path(py_exec).parent.parent, 'lib', 'site-packages')

    # Print the directory where the packages will be installed
    print(f"Packages will be installed to: {lib_dir}")

    # Ensure pip 
    try:
        print("Ensuring pip is installed...")
        subprocess.run([py_exec, "-m", "ensurepip", "--user"], check=True, capture_output=True, text=True)
        print("pip is installed.")
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
        print("Failed to ensure pip is installed.")
        print(e.output)

    # Update pip 
    try:
        print("Updating pip...")
        subprocess.run([py_exec, "-m", "pip", "install", "--upgrade", "pip"], check=True, capture_output=True, text=True)
        print("pip is updated.")
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
        print("Failed to update pip.")
        print(e.output)

    # List of packages to install
    required_packages = {
        "numpy": "1.26.0",
        "scipy": "1.13.0",
        "matplotlib": "3.8.4",
        "gempy": "2024.1.4",
        "torch": "2.2.2",
        "torchvision": "0.17.2",
        "torchaudio": "2.2.2",
        "pandas": "2.2.2",
        "scikit-image": "0.23.2"
    }

    # Install each package
    for package, version in required_packages.items():
        install_package(py_exec, lib_dir, f"{package}=={version}")

    # Print success message
    print("\nAll dependencies installed successfully. You may now install the add-on to Blender.")

# Run the package installation process
ensure_packages()

Then, I recommend tracking the progress in the system console, so before running the script, click on "Window" (horizontal toolbar at the very top) and click "Toggle System Console" this will open the console as a separate window that will just hang out in the background (note: if you close this console window, it will close Blender too). Now go back in the scripting workspace and click on "text" then "run script". When the installation is complete, the console window will display the message "All dependencies installed successfully. You may now install the add-on to Blender."

[MastSim93sCATEopn]

Thanks for your help! I can't wait to see your video. It would be really helpful. I would like to use your add-on properly for my PhD research