ccRender

An addon for Blender that renders a blend file to the cloud. This uses paramiko libraries to SSH into an HPC scheduler node, copy over the file, and evoke a job to execute Blender rendering all nodes.

Python requirements

At the time of this instruction, the latest version of Blender is 3.1 that comes bundled with Python 3.10. You will need to make sure you are using that version of Python in order for Blender to recognize its dependencies.

Ubuntu (adjust this for Mac and other Linux Distributions)

Add the repository and install the python 3.10 in the terminal

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3.10

and then download and install to the specific Python version

wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
sudo python3.10 get-pip.py

Make sure you have git installed.

Create a blender script folder for the modules and addons. Inside the script folder create the following folders:

::

addons modules startup

Then go back to the terminal and use the following commnand to install the modules to the script modules directory:

::

pip3.10 install --target=/home/<user>/<blenderscripts>/modules/ git+https://github.com/omnibond/ccRender

Open the modules folder inside the blender script directory. Find the folder called ccRender and move it up one level to the addons folder. You can move it anywhere else as long as you know where to find it in order to install ccSimple.py file that is inside ccRender.

Open Blender and find the scripts directory field in preferences -> file -> scripts and set it to the path to your <blenderscripts> folder.

Restart Blender open the addons in preference -> addon. Click on Install to File button and find the python file ccSimple.py in the ccRender folder mention earlier.

Once the addon is added to Blender, enable it.

Return to the main screen, make sure you are in 3D Viewport (by default) and enable the sidebar option under View.

Windows

Once you have Blender installed, make sure Git is installed as well. You can download the latest verion on Git for Windows.

Open command prompt as admin and type the following:

::

cd "[Program Directory]Blender FoundationBlender 3.13.1pythonbin"

Replae [Program Directory] with wherever you have Blender installed (default: "C:Program Files")

Then install pip into Blender python

::

python.exe -m ensurepip

Next, install ccRender through github (provided you should have git installed at this point):

::

python.exe -m pip install ccRender

Once ccRender is installed, close the command prompt. Open File Explorer. Navigate to the site-packages directory in:

[Program Directory]\Blender Foundation\Blender 3.1\3.1\python\lib\site-packages

Find a folder called ccRender. Open the folder and move the python file ccSimple.py move it to this directory:

::

[Program Directory]Blender FoundationBlender 3.13.1scriptsaddons

If a pop-up appears asking for Administrator permissions, click "Continue". This will install the addon to Blender automatically.

Then open Blender and open the addon by preferences -> addon.

Search the list of addons for ccRender to confirm the addon is enabled. If it's not enabled, enable it.

Return to the main screen, make sure you are in 3D Viewport (by default) and enable the sidebar option under View.