Installation

Linux

Ideally, you would have installed Blender from a zip-file, and not using a package manager or snap.

Create a new python environment (which we will call render_env here) with a compatible python version and activate it.

To be able to render isosurfaces, install scikit-image in the environment:

(render_env)$ pip install scikit-image

If you do not do this, you might get an error at the final step of the install script, however the error should be that Blender was not able to import skimage, and because we import render_molecules first, that should be imported successfully.

Then, while still in that environment, run the install_linux.sh script:

(render_env)$ ./install_linux.sh

This will create symlinks to the render_molecules directory and site-packages/skimage directory of the current environment. Depending on where you installed Blender (for example in /usr/local/), you might need root permissions to make the symlinks. If so, run the script as

(render_env)$ sudo -N env "PATH=$PATH" ./install_linux.sh

This will run the script using the non-root-user environment, such that it can still find the Blender executable. If you have not registered Blender (I would first recommend doing so, see here), you can also pass the path to the executable to the install script, as

(render_env)$ ./install_linux.sh  /path/to/blender/executable

or

(render_env)$ sudo -N env "PATH=$PATH" ./install_linux.sh /path/to/blender/executable

After making the symlinks, the script will try to import render_molecules and skimage in a Blender instance running in the background.

MacOS

Create a new python environment (which we will call render_env here) with a compatible python version and activate it.

To be able to render isosurfaces, install scikit-image in the environment:

(render_env)$ pip install scikit-image

If you do not do this, you might get an error at the final step of the install script, however the error should be that Blender was not able to import skimage, and because we import render_molecules first, that should be imported successfully.

Then, while still in that environment, run the install_macos.sh script:

(render_env)$ sh ./install_macos.sh

This will create symlinks to the render_molecules directory and site-packages/skimage directory of the current environment. Depending on where you installed Blender (for example in /usr/local/), you might need root permissions to make the symlinks. If so, run the script as

(render_env)$ sh ./install_macos.sh

This will run the script using the non-root-user environment, such that it can still find the Blender executable. If you have not registered Blender (I would first recommend doing so, see here), you can also pass the path to the executable (most likely /Applications/Blender.app/Contents/MacOS/Blender) to the install script, as

(render_env)$ sh ./install_macos.sh  /path/to/blender/executable

or

(render_env)$ sudo -N env "PATH=$PATH" sh ./install_macos.sh /path/to/blender/executable

After making the symlinks, the script will try to import render_molecules and skimage in a Blender instance running in the background.

Note

When trying to import skimage, you might get an error with:

(mach-o file, but is an incompatible architecture (have 'arm64', need 'x86_64'))

If that is the case, your Mac is likely on Apple Silicon, and not on an Intel chip. To make sure your environment is compatible with this, please remove the environment, and recreate it as

(render_env)$ conda deactivate
(base)$ conda remove -n render_env --all
(base)$ CONDA_SUBDIR=osx-arm64 conda create -n render_env python=***
(base)$ conda activate render_env
(render_env)$ pip cache purge
(render_env)$ pip install scikit-image

This will ensure that newly installed packages are compatible with the ARM architecture. For more information, see here.

Windows

No idea at the moment.

Uninstalling

Linux

Run uninstall.sh. It has the same requirements as install_linux.sh discussed above.