Ira Krakow's Blender 3D 2.53 Beta Add Ons Tutorial

Blender 2.53 Beta was officially released. You can download this, the first Beta release of 2.5, at:

http://www.blender.org/download/get-25-alpha/

It's so new that the URL still says alpha! Versions of 2.53 Beta can be downloaded for Windows 32bit, Windows 64 bit, Linux 32bit and 64 bit, Mac OS X, and Solaris. As a beta version, the basic features should be in place, although bugs are still expected. There are many bug fixes, some reorganization of window choices, and some new features. You can read more about all the changes in Blender 2.5, at:

http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-250/

In this tutorial, I'm going to talk about the new Add-On repository, which is a way to extend Blender functionality by adding Python scripts. A number of these scripts are shipped with 2.53 beta. They are documented online in the Blender 2.5 Add-Ons Repository, at:

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.5/Py/Scripts

I will show you where the add-on scripts are stored and how to install and run them. I will also show you how to edit the source code of the installed scripts, which are a great resource for learning how to write add-ons.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• blender
• 2.53
• beta
• add
• on
• addon
• tutorial
• python
• script
• enhance
• 3d
• cg
• animation
• modeling

[MikeHornett]

I thought I was the only one that had to go back and correct my tutorials with annotations. lol, thanks for making me feel normal.

[irakrakow]

@MikeHornett You're quite welcome. Nobody is perfect.

[BlenderMeshWeaver]

hmm...I've used the add-ons a lot, but there's one thing I'm curious about - do you actually need to install the add-on for it to work? or was that just the steps so you could open the python file?

anyway, awesome tutorial :D there's only one thing I noticed, and this is the first time I've noticed, but your audio and video don't seem to match as well as usual in this video... if I remember correctly, you pre-record your audio, right? (from your "How to make a video tutorial" video)

[irakrakow]

@BlenderMeshWeaver I discovered after I did the video that you're right! Just click the little square in the upper right corner of the particular add on and it's enabled, which means you can use it. Also, yes, I did this one quickly, and there's a bit of a mismatch between the audio and the video. I'm thinking of showing some of the different add ons in more detail in some future videos. Thanks for your input.

[multimediahelp1]

Ira i found a very strange bug or glitch.

You see when i open blender 2.5 aplha 2 and i work my projects.

After saving it many times, blender shows a message about quit blender file.

Now what happens is that you can't save the .blend (project that your working on).

so instead blender names your project quit.blend, also if you search your hard drive for the .blend file it cannot be find anymore.

To prevent this from happening is to, or recover last session. (NEXT COMMENT)

[irakrakow]

@multimediahelp1 What can I say? This is alpha software, which means it's not ready for prime time. The solution is to save your file often and make backups of those versions that you can recover from.

[Ghosthunt64]

THANK YOU! I kept getting results for how to install Blender with Python, because I was too stupid to search for How to install Add-Ons in Blender

[MiyuArt]

F**K !!! Why I'm not english ? I understand anythong TUT

[cryinglaughterFTW]

I love your voice... x3

[dactnl]

Thanks for this reminder. I just downloaded 2.55

[kitsunegamer375]

I just downloaded Blender 2.53 Beta and need to make a background image to start a model, but I can't find the background image button anymore. Can you help me out?

[julienmauricemort]

it wont use python 3.1 which i installed

[flyingpig217]

I need to know which one to install for Python 2.7 or 3.1.2. I have windows 7 64 bit. I just installed Blender 2.53 Beta. I'm a definitely new at this.

[norvman]

Thanks great info... ben wanting to figure out add-ons for blender for a while now and just have not gotten to it... This Tut did the short cut for me...

Thanks Ira!

[irakrakow]

@pepperannziggi You can report bugs in the user interface even if you're not a programmer. They are important to report.