Dev:Py/Scripts

Add-ons Development

To Do Parts of this document or documents to which it links may be outdated. Please do not hesitate to either fix the documents right away or propose a fix in the discussion section

How to develop add-ons

• Check out the Addon examples (see bottom of this page)
• Coding Guidelines (For beginners).
• Add-ons Submission Guidelines (for Contributors).
• Add-ons Cookbook (for howto do things).
• Code Snippets (easy to follow, good for self teaching the basics of add-on development).

API

• API Introduction by Campbell (with examples)
• API Overview by Campbell (background information about how the API fits in)
• Dynamic creation of operators
• API Reference for latest official release
• API Reference for master (development version)
• Blender Python API changes if you need to update your add-on

How to Learn Python

• Python Book of Magic for Blender users with no programming experience.
• Official Python Tutorial for experienced developers and curious people who want to learn more.
• The little Book of Python Anti-Patterns for everybody.

Can i distribute my add-on with Blender?

Yes, you can! The add-ons submission guidelines explain the workflow in detail. At the end of this process you become a full responsible Blender add-on developer. Sorry we have no badges for that ... yet :)

Add-ons examples

You can find hundreds of Blender Add-Ons on the internet. But we recommend to first look at the official resources:

Python Templates (in Blender)

When you open the Text editor in Blender then you find a set of ready made python scripts which can be used as starting point for your own creation.

Add-on Online Repository

The Add-on Source repository is your source for inspiration and how to do your scripting in the Blender way. Please feel free to examine the existing Add-ons and get inspired. And yes, it is welcome to take ideas from there into your own work.

Addon Folders in Blender Distributions

Below is a list of the Add-on folders found in your Blender distribution. It is located relative to your Blender installation folder, within the subfolder blender/scripts:

addons/
addons_contrib/
freestyle/
modules/
presets/
startup/
templates_osl/
templates_py/

addons

Contains official add-Ons (Some disbled by default). These might need to be enabled in the Preferences panel.

addons_contrib

Contains contributed add-Ons (all disabled by default). These can be enabled in the Preferences panel.

freestyle

to be documented

modules

Python script modules.

presets

Python Presets for Blender, cloth, render, sss & sunsky so far!

startup

Scripts registered at Blender startup.

Sub-folders:

• bl_operators: Blender operators modules.
• bl_ui: User interface properties & window properties scripts.

templates_osl

OSL Script templates found in the text editor.

templates_py

Python Script templates found in the text editor.

Development environments

• Video tutorial: Writing Python scripts for Blender with Intellij IDEA
• Using Eclipse as an IDE for blender add-ons