Installation

Pip Install

By default, grill won’t install USD, PySide(2|6) & PyOpenGL. This is because DCC apps and other environments bundle them outside of pip. To include them, use the [full] option.

Similarly, grill won’t install asset creation capabilities, as those are opinionated. To enable these, use the [create] option.

Other dependencies like numpy, networkx or pydot can be skipped by using the --no-deps flag.

Default

python -m pip install grill

Full

python -m pip install grill[full]

Create

python -m pip install grill[create]

No Dependencies

python -m pip install --no-deps grill

Note

For some DCC applications (e.g. Houdini, Maya) pip needs to run from their corresponding python interpreters:

Houdini

If pip is missing, follow this guide.

hython -m pip install grill

Maya

Visit the official docs for more details.

mayapy -m pip install grill

Extra Dependencies

The following optional dependencies should be installed separately.

• graphviz for graph widgets. See conda example below for instructions.

• usdview (hopefully will be available soon via pypi). In the meantime, it can be built from USD source (conda recipe).

Conda Environment Example

For environment management, The Grill uses conda. This is a walk-through on how to start using The Grill tools with a fresh conda environment.

1. If the conda command is not on the system yet, install miniconda.

   Hint

   conda installation comes in two flavors:

   • Anaconda, which is conda + a lot of extra utilities.

   • miniconda, which is the minimal bootstrap for conda. When in doubt, install this one.

2. Launch Anaconda Prompt (it came as part of the miniconda installation).

3. Create a new conda environment with python=3.10, for example:

   (base) C:\>conda create -n grilldemo01 python=3.10
   

4. Activate that environment:

   (base) C:\>conda activate grilldemo01
   

5. Install grill via pip; use the [full,create] options to use standalone. Refer to the pip install instructions for more details.

   (grilldemo01) C:\>python -m pip install grill[full,create]
   

6. If missing, (optionally) install graphviz via conda:

   (grilldemo01) C:\>conda install conda-forge::graphviz
   

   Hint

   For graph visualization, a python library for graphviz is required. grill supports pydot and pygraphviz:

   • pydot, is the default (installed with the grill package) but can be slower for large graphs (4k+ nodes)

   • pygraphviz, is faster but challenging to insall (visit the docs and pygraphviz#468 for more details)

7. You should be able to see the 👨‍🍳 Grill menu in USDView, Maya and Houdini*.

   USDView

   

   Houdini

   

   Maya

   

   Important

   To see the menu in Houdini, run this additional step (which installs the grill houdini package on the Houdini’s user preferences):

   hython -c "from grill.__startup__ import houdini;houdini.install_package()"
   

   The manual execution of this step might be removed in the future.