About

Blender has a Python scripting API, but it is limited to an interpreter launched within Blender. This Jupyter kernel starts a Blender instance with an async kernel running inside of it. This means that you can script from hydrogen or a Notebook while still using the Blender UI.

Installation

Automatic

Cheng-chi made a comprehensive installer at https://github.com/cheng-chi/blender_notebook hosted on pip! Instructions are there

Manual

Find your DATA_DIR with jupyter --data-dir. Your KERNEL_DIR is DATA_DIR/kernels/

1. git clone https://github.com/cameronfr/BlenderKernel
2. In kernel.json, replace KERNEL_DIR with your KERNEL_DIR
3. In KernelFile.py, replace pythonPath with a python site-packages path (e.g. run python -c 'import site; print(site.getsitepackages())' to find it)
4. In KernelFile.py, replace blenderPath with a path to your Blender executable (e.g. /Applications/Blender.app/Contents/MacOS/Blender on Mac)
5. mv BlenderKernel KERNEL_DIR/blender

Use jupyter kernelspec list to make sure the kernel is listed, then launch the kernel as you would any other.

To test on the default cube scene,

• run import bpy
• the Cube should move when you run bpy.data.objects["Cube"].location[0] += 0.5 .

Caveats

• the kernel should persist when opening other .blend files
• however, if you encounter an error like ReferenceError: StructRNA of type Object has been removed, the solution is to del obj where obj is something you assigned to a Blender object in a previously opened file.