Can 3rd party modules (ex. SciPy) be installed when an add-on is installed?

#1

Trying to use SciPy in an add-on such that it is automatically installed when users install the add-on.

Related discussions took place a few years ago (here’s one). But as this user notes, a lot of solutions would require end users to install a module before installing an add-on.

#2

Why not have in the init method of your addon check for scipy, if not there run a python.exe subprocess to an external script to install it via pip?

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#3

We do that for the Rhinoceros 3D importer import_3dm - bootstrap pip using ensurepip, then install into a user script path that is in Blender sys.path using subprocess to all the Python executable that is bundled with Blender.

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#4

Thanks @bsavery & @jesterKing. Provided a solution to the linked question. Happy to incorporate additional feedback should you think of anything.

#5

Does this assume that the computer has an aactive internet connection? Or are you talking about installing it from some kind of zip bundle?

#6

That is one downside. Another is that complex things like scipy often have other dependencies, dependencies which sometimes need to be compiled.

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#7

just a heads up when blender is installed into program files on windows, that code will have run as administrator since regular users do not have write permissions there.

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#8

@kurk I see that @stiv and @LazyDodo already pointed out the obvious issues.

For the ensurepip part I suggest using the --user argument. And maybe it is even possible to specify a separate location outside of --user, but still writable for the regular user (think bpy.utils.script_path_user).

Then for actually using the bootstrapped pip to install modules definitely use bpy.utils.script_path_user() as a location. I believe that one of the sys.path entries is bpy.utils.script_path_user()+/addons/modules. This I use to install the rhino3dm dependency for my add-on import_3dm.

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