Building Blender from Source

Last Built: Apr 27, 2021

Building Blender from Source

As a developer, there are a number of advantages that come from building from source: * Avoid having to wait for bug fixes from full releases * Building the latest version to test compatibility early * Testing new features and how we can integrate with them * Blender can be built as a python module, which can improve IDE integration.

The Blender code repo is also managed by git, allowing ease of integration into our workflow. There are some additional prerequisite utilities that need to be installed first.

See - https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Building_Blender

The repo comes with scripts which will package up the addon for use

Building the Blender Niftools Addon

The Blender Niftools Addon is a python project which can be manually put into the Blender add-ons directory. The repo provides a set of scripts which allows creating of a zip file which can be loaded into Blender Addon Manager.

Note

Ensure that you have installed the prerequisite dependencies using install_deps scripts

Build Zip

To build the addon from a git checkout, run the following in the Command Prompt (Windows):

cd ./blender_niftools_addon/install
makezip.bat

or from a Bash terminal (Linux):

cd ./blender_niftools_addon/install
makezip.sh

Install

To install the addon from a git checkout, run the following in the Command Prompt (Windows):

cd ./blender_niftools_addon/install
install.bat

or from a Bash terminal (Linux):

cd ./blender_niftools_addon/install
sh ./install.sh