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.

Default

python -m pip install grill

Full

python -m pip install grill[full]

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 and pygraphviz 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=3.9, for example:

   (base) C:\>conda create -n grilldemo01 python=3.9
   

4. Activate that environment:

   (base) C:\>conda activate grilldemo01
   

5. Install grill via pip; use the full option to use standalone. Refer to the pip install instructions for more details.

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

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

   Warning

   At the moment, installing pygraphviz can be tricky. Hopefully a simpler pip+wheel based solution comes with pygraphviz#167.

   Versions older than pip-23.3.2 may have trouble installing pygraphviz in Windows for DCCs like Maya and Houdini. If you come through this trouble, visit pygraphviz#468 and try to install with this exact particular version of pip. The below tests ran successfully with Maya-2024 and Houdini-20.0 on Windows-10 and pip-23.3.2.

   The current pip version can be extracted like so:

   Standalone Python

   python -m pip -V
   

   Houdini

   hython -m pip -V
   

   Maya

   mayapy -m pip -V
   

   To update to 23.3.2, update the interpreter command to run:

   Standalone Python

   python -m pip install -U pip==23.3.2
   

   Houdini

   hython -m pip install -U pip==23.3.2
   

   Maya

   mayapy -m pip install -U pip==23.3.2
   

   Standalone Python

   Replace --global-option to the correct Include and Lib paths on the system (where graphviz\cgraph.h and cgraph.lib paths exist, respectively):

   (grilldemo01) C:\>conda install --channel conda-forge pygraphviz
   (grilldemo01) C:\>python -m pip install --global-option=build_ext --global-option="-IC:\Users\Christian\.conda\envs\glowdeps\Library\include" --global-option="-LC:\Users\Christian\.conda\envs\glowdeps\Library\lib" pygraphviz
   

   Houdini

   Replace --global-option to the correct Include and Lib paths on the system (where graphviz\cgraph.h and cgraph.lib paths exist, respectively):

   (grilldemo01) C:\>conda install --channel conda-forge pygraphviz
   (grilldemo01) C:\Program Files\Side Effects Software\Houdini 19.5.534\bin>hython -m pip install -vvv --use-pep517 --config-settings="--global-option=build_ext" --config-settings="--global-option=-IC:\Users\Christian\.conda\envs\pygraphviz310\Library\include" --config-settings="--global-option=-LC:\Users\Christian\.conda\envs\pygraphviz310\Library\lib" pygraphviz
   

   Maya

   Replace --global-option to the correct Include and Lib paths on the system (where graphviz\cgraph.h and cgraph.lib paths exist, respectively) and the Maya Python include and lib paths:

   (grilldemo01) C:\>conda install --channel conda-forge pygraphviz
   (grilldemo01) C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2023\bin>mayapy -m pip install -U pip==23.3.2
   (grilldemo01) C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2023\bin>mayapy -m pip install -vvv --use-pep517 --config-settings="--global-option=build_ext" --config-settings="--global-option=-IC:\Users\Christian\.conda\envs\pygraphviz310\Library\include;C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2024\include\Python39\Python" --config-settings="--global-option=-LC:\Users\Christian\.conda\envs\pygraphviz310\Library\lib;C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2024\lib" pygraphviz
   

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.