A simple command line tool to wrap blender 2.8+ as a jupyter kernel.
Blender's python API requires its embedded python interpreter. As of Blender 2.82, python 3.7 is packaged. In order to make ipykernel and other pip packages accessible to Blender, the site-packages directory of the python interpreter executing blender_notebook will be added to Blender's python path. Therefore, it's highly recommended to use exactly the same python version as your blender.
The easiest way to install blender_notebook is via pip:
$ python -m pip install blender_notebook
It can also be installed from source:
$ python -m pip install -e .
If blender in installed by a package manager, the easiest way to find the executable path is:
$ which blender
/snap/bin/blender
In my case, blender is installed from snap.
On MacOS, the blender executable path is usually:
/Applications/Blender.app/Contents/MacOS/Blender
On Windows, the blender executable path is usually:
C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.82\blender.exe
Then, run the blender_notebook CLI (replace "snap/bin/blender" with your blender executable path):
$ blender_notebook install --blender-exec="/snap/bin/blender"
Saving files to ~/.local/share/jupyter/kernels/blender
If you launch jupyter notebook as usual, a new kernel named blender should be available.
$ jupyter kernelspec list
Available kernels:
blender ~/.local/share/jupyter/kernels/blender
$ jupyter notebook
You can also delete the kernel:
$ blender_notebook remove
Are you sure to delete ~/.local/share/jupyter/kernels/blender ? [y/N]: y
blender jupyter kernel is removed!