Software installation

Skybrush Studio for Blender is a platform independent tool, just like Blender. The installation procedure is the same for Linux, macOS and Windows. Please follow the steps below.

Installation

1. Check hardware requirements

We suggest to follow the official Blender recommendation for choosing your computer on which you want to run Blender and Skybrush Studio for Blender.

An additional requirement is that you need to have active Internet connection on your computer as Skybrush Studio needs to communicate with the Skybrush Studio Server for certain tasks such as planning transitions or creating exports in Skybrush compiled show format. You may use the software without Internet connection, but certain functions that require an Internet connection will not be available until you go online again.

2. Install Blender

There are many Blender versions out there, we aim for compatibility with the latest Long Term Support (LTS) release. This is version 4.2 at the time of writing. if you are unsure, check the version number of the latest Long Term Support (LTS) release on the Blender site.

3. Install Skybrush Studio for Blender

Skybrush Studio for Blender can be downloaded from https://skybrush.io as a single .zip file. Please download it to your computer first, then follow the instructions below.

Safari on macOS automatically unzips all .zip files by default, which will prevent you from selecting the .zip file itself when installing the plugin. If you are using Safari on macOS, hold down the Option key when clicking on the download link to prevent this from happening, or turn off the unzipping of "safe" files permanently in Safari  Preferences  General.
Install Blender Add-ons

  1. Open Blender and go to Edit → Preferences → Add-ons.

  2. (optional) Activate the "User" filter for the add-ons.

  3. Press the Install…​ button on the top right.

  4. In the popup window select the Skybrush Studio for Blender .zip file that you have downloaded previously to your computer, and press Enter.

  5. Activate the "Interface: Skybrush Studio" add-on by clicking on the checkbox next to this item in the add-on list.

  6. Setup add-on preferences if you are using a version of Skybrush Studio for Blender other than the free community edition:

    API Key

    Enter the API key received that is used when communicating with the Skybrush Studio server.

    Server URL

    Enter the URL of a dedicated Skybrush Studio server if you are using a dedicated server.

4. Enable Online Access in Blender

Starting from Blender 4.2, the preferences dialog in Blender provides an option where the user can explicitly indicate that they wish to allow (or deny) access to online resources. Skybrush Studio for Blender uses an online resource (either a community server or a locally hosted instance of that server) to calculate transitions, decompose formations, plan takeoffs and landings and export the show into various file formats. If you want to use the full capabilities of the add-on, you need to enable online access if you are running Blender 4.2 or later. Earlier versions of Blender are not affected.

To turn on online access, open Blender and go to Edit → Preferences → System, scroll down to the "Network" section and then tick the "Allow Online Access" checkbox.

Installing updates

Skybrush Studio for Blender consists of multiple modules that are interpreted by the Python interpreter built into Blender. In order to perform an upgrade of the add-on, the previous version needs to be unloaded completely before the new version is installed. Due to how Python’s module system works, this is very hard to do without unloading the plugin manually. Therefore, the preferred sequence to update the add-on is as follows:

  1. Deactivate the add-on in Edit → Preferences → Add-ons by unticking the checkbox in front of the Skybrush Studio add-on.

  2. Install the new version of the add-on using the same procedure as outlined above.

  3. Exit Blender.

  4. Restart Blender.

  5. Activate the add-on again in Edit → Preferences → Add-ons.

If the update still fails after following the steps outlined above, try to completely uninstall the old add-on first manually (as described below) and then re-install the new one from scratch.

Uninstallation

If you decide to uninstall Skybrush Studio for Blender for any reasons, you have to do it manually. Removing the add-on from Blender’s add-on manager is possible, but it will not remove all files related to Skybrush Studio for Blender. The full, manual process is as follows:

  1. Deactivate the add-on first in Blender’s add-on manager.

  2. Open the file manager of your operating system and navigate to the folder containing the Blender add-ons. Refer to Blender’s documentation to find the add-ons folder.

  3. Remove the file named ui_skybrush_studio.py.

  4. Also remove the skybrush folder within the vendor folder.