How to embed FreeCAD in a Python virtual environment? - python-3.x

How do I setup a Python virtual environment with the FreeCAD library embedded as to enable import as a module into scripts?
I would like to avoid using the FreeCAD GUI as well as being dependent on having FreeCAD installed on the system, when working with Python scripts that use FreeCAD libraries to create and modify 3D geometry. I hope a Python virtual environment can make that possible.
I am working in PyCharm 2021.1.1 with Python 3.8 in virtualenv on Debian 10.
I started out with FreeCAD documentation for embedding in scripts as a basis:
https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Embedding_FreeCAD
In one attempt, I downloaded and unpacked .deb packages from Debian, taking care to get the correct versions required by each dependency. In another attempt, I copied the contents of a FreeCAD flatpak install, as it should contain all the libraries that FreeCAD depends on.
After placing the libraries to be imported in the virtual maching folder, I have pointed to them with sys.path.append() as well as PyCharm's Project Structure tool in various attempts. In both cases the virtual environment detects where FreeCAD.so is located, but fails to find any of its dependencies, even when located in the same folder. When importing these dependencies explicitly, each of them have the same issue. This leads to a dead end when an import fails because it does not define a module export function according to Python:
ImportError: dynamic module does not define module export function (PyInit_libnghttp2)
I seem to be looking at a very long chain of broken dependencies, even though I make the required libraries available and inform Python where they are located.
I would appreciate either straight up instructions for how to do this or pointers to documentation that describes importing FreeCAD libraries in Python virtual environments, as I have not come across anything that specific yet.
I came across a few prior questions which seemed to have similar intent, but no answers:
Embedding FreeCAD in python script
Is it possible to embed Blender/Freecad in a python program?
Similar questions for Conda focus on importing libraries from the host system rather than embedding them in the virtual environment:
Incude FreeCAD in system path for just one conda virtual environment
Other people's questions on FreeCAD forums went unanswered:
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?t=27929
EDIT:
Figuring this out was a great learning experience. The problem with piecing dependencies together is that for that approach to work out, everything from the FreeCAD and its dependencies to the Python interpreter and its dependencies seems to need to be built on the same versions of the libraries that they depend on to avoid causing segmentation faults that brings everything to a crashing halt. This means that the idea of grabbing FreeCAD modules and libraries it depends on from a Flatpak installation is in theory not horrible, as all parts are built together using the same library versions. I just couldn't make it work out, presumably due to how the included libraries are located and difficulty identifying an executable for the included Python interpreter. In the end, I looked into the contents of the FreeCAD AppImage, and that turned out to have everything needed in a folder structure that appears to be very friendly to what PyCharm and Python expects from modules and libraries.

This is what I did to get FreeCAD to work with PyCharm and virtualenv:
Download FreeCAD AppImage
https://www.freecadweb.org/downloads.php
Make AppImage executable
chmod -v +x ~/Downloads/FreeCAD_*.AppImage
Create folder for extracting AppImage
mkdir -v ~/Documents/freecad_appimage
Extract AppImage from folder (note: this expands to close to 30000 files requiring in excess of 2 GB disk space)
cd ~/Documents/freecad_appimage
~/Downloads/./FreeCAD_*.AppImage --appimage-extract
Create folder for PyCharm project
mkdir -v ~/Documents/pycharm_freecad_project
Create pycharm project using Python interpreter from extracted AppImage
Location: ~/Documents/pycharm_freecad_project
New environment using: Virtualenv
Location: ~/Documents/pycharm_freecad_project/venv
Base interpreter: ~/Documents/freecad_appimage/squashfs-root/usr/bin/python
Inherit global site-packages: False
Make available to all projects: False
Add folder containing FreeCAD.so library as Content Root to PyCharm Project Structure and mark as Sources (by doing so, you shouldn't have to set PYTHONPATH or sys.path values, as PyCharm provides module location information to the interpreter)
File: Settings: Project: Project Structure: Add Content Root
~/Documents/freecad_appimage/squashfs-root/usr/lib
After this PyCharm is busy indexing files for a while.
Open Python Console in PyCharm and run command to check basic functioning
import FreeCAD
Create python script with example functionality
import FreeCAD
vec = FreeCAD.Base.Vector(0, 0, 0)
print(vec)
Run script
Debug script
All FreeCAD functionality I have used in my scripts so far has worked. However, one kink seems to be that the FreeCAD module needs to be imported before the Path module. Otherwise the Python interpreter exits with code 139 (interrupted by signal 11: SIGSEGV).
There are a couple of issues with PyCharm: It is showing a red squiggly line under the import name and claiming that an error has happened because "No module named 'FreeCAD'", even though the script is running perfectly. Also, PyCharm fails to provide code completion in the code view, even though it manages to do so in it's Python Console. I am creating new questions to address those issues and will update info here if I find a solution.

Related

Where does python under conda look for a package?

I am trying to manually install a python3.8 module under conda. My module is a python wrapper of a C++ library. It comes with CMakeLists.txt. By specifying -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to miniconda3 directory, I achieve that the corresponding .so module appears in miniconda3/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/.
Then, I run python in the same terminal and I can successfully import the module. But if I open another terminal, then the module cannot be found.
I have checked that both terminals run the same python (which python), and have identical environment (by comparing printenv outputs). I also have checked that sys.path values are identical and include miniconda3/lib/python3.8/. Still, the behavior is different.
So where does python look for modules?
The official documentation says that sys.path is the place, but it seems not the only place.
EDIT: This answer is most likely not related to the current problem.
Try running this command in your terminal before you open up python:
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/path/to/miniconda3/lib/python3.8/dist-packages
This isn't python looking for .so files, but rather ld (linker).
EDIT: The issue stemmed from different working directories in the used terminal windows. Python searches within sys.path and cwd (current working directory) for imported modules. More in the discussion under the question.

pycharm has no Qt platform plugin could be initialized error when using matplotlib

I installed my python as an independent program into my personal user folder on windows 10:
C:\Users\My.Name\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\
Then I installed all packages that I want from inside PyCharm 2021.2.3 community version via
File->Settings->Add package
It's been ok and I can run my numpy pandas data project etc. But when I add the matplotlib library and tried to do simple plot, it gave the no Qt platform plugin could be initialized error.
I searched for answers and proceed to install the following packages:
PyQt5
PyQt5-Qt5
PyQt5-sip
PyQt5-stubs
pyqt5-plugins
pyqt5-tools
qt5-applications
qt5-tools
Then I checked in these package's bin\ folders to ensure the 'platforms' folder exists and the qwindows.dll is present.
But matplotlib still fails with that no Qt platform error.
Found out that I have to put the PyQt5's lib path into my PATH environment variable like below:
First, go open the 'Edit Environment Variables for your account' dialog
Then, add the following 3 entries on TOP of the path list:
C:\Users\My.Name\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\Lib\site-packages\PyQt5\Qt5\bin
C:\Users\My.Name\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\Lib\site-packages\PyQt5\Qt5\plugins
C:\Users\My.Name\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\Lib\site-packages\PyQt5\Qt5\plugins\platforms
Also, if you have a variable named: QT_PLUGIN_PATH, you want to put this line at the TOP of the list:
C:\Users\My.Name\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\Lib\site-packages\PyQt5\Qt5\plugins
After saving your environment variables, you need to restart PyCharm to have it "find" these libraries.
Well, this got me past this no Qt platform error in this case. But I have other python-qt programs that needs other python versions/install path, this will break those programs. I have found that pyqt programs usually have this problem, I still think (and sincerely hope) there is better approach than to mess with the PATH environment. I am still open to other suggestions of course.

How can I create a Python executable program that doesn't force the user to actually download Python libraries and that stuff in order to be executed?

Let's say that I already built a program that essentially takes some images from an user's path and make new ones using the following libraries/modules:
os itertools pandas PIL
What I need now is to make that program become an executable file that can be actually executed without having to have installed the Python environment and the libraries used in the code, because the user would not know how to code, and would not likely matter how the code works.
The program would run on Windows OS (PC) only , and would use the cmd.exe as the interpreter and medium for user inputs and results display.
Solved here
You can use wheel, and ship whole environment.
#Vincent Caeles:
"#rh979 a wheel is not meant to have all dependencies. Subsequently you could do pip install path/to/wheel.whl --target /path/to/some/folder and zip the contents of the 'folder' to have all your dependencies in the zip archive and ship that to the environment where you want to run your code.
"
Another options is pyinstaller library, according to documentation it should do what you need.

Pyinstaller executable fails with pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound error

I'm making a PDF Tool executable using tkinter. Anyways, the executable was successfully created by pyinstaller, but it won't run. I flagged --onedir and added the necessary dependency files --add-data. I also added the paths to my non standard library packages using --paths flag. When I run the executable from the command prompt, I get this:
The problem appears to come from the ocrmypdf module and says pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound. I tried searching for the fix, but all the problems I saw were a bit different from my issue because the .py script runs just fine for me. Is this a pyinstaller issue, or am I missing a module? I'm using pyinstaller 4.0 as well.
After researching a little bit more, I've found the solution. The problem lies with pyinstaller, not the ocrmypdf module. The solution is that you have to create hook py scripts within a folder in your project. It's a little bit different depending on which module you use, but for this case, I had to create two hook py scripts within a folder that I called 'hooks'. These are the two scripts I made:
hook-ocrmypdf.py
from PyInstaller.utils.hooks import collect_all
datas, binaries, hiddenimports = collect_all('ocrmypdf')
hook-pikepdf.py
from PyInstaller.utils.hooks import collect_all
datas, binaries, hiddenimports = collect_all('pikepdf')
For more information go here.
Additionally, you must add the --additional-hooks-dir HookFolderPath flag to the pyinstaller command.

Allow my friends to run my python script? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Create a single executable from a Python project [closed]
(3 answers)
Closed 1 year ago.
I'm building a Python application and don't want to force my clients to install Python and modules.
So, is there a way to compile a Python script to be a standalone executable?
You can use PyInstaller to package Python programs as standalone executables. It works on Windows, Linux, and Mac.
PyInstaller Quickstart
Install PyInstaller from PyPI:
pip install pyinstaller
Go to your program’s directory and run:
pyinstaller yourprogram.py
This will generate the bundle in a subdirectory called dist.
pyinstaller -F yourprogram.py
Adding -F (or --onefile) parameter will pack everything into single "exe".
pyinstaller -F --paths=<your_path>\Lib\site-packages yourprogram.py
running into "ImportError" you might consider side-packages.
pip install pynput==1.6.8
still runing in Import-Erorr - try to downgrade pyinstaller - see Getting error when using pynput with pyinstaller
For a more detailed walkthrough, see the manual.
You can use py2exe as already answered and use Cython to convert your key .py files in .pyc, C compiled files, like .dll in Windows and .so on Linux.
It is much harder to revert than common .pyo and .pyc files (and also gain in performance!).
You might wish to investigate Nuitka. It takes Python source code and converts it in to C++ API calls. Then it compiles into an executable binary (ELF on Linux). It has been around for a few years now and supports a wide range of Python versions.
You will probably also get a performance improvement if you use it. It is recommended.
Yes, it is possible to compile Python scripts into standalone executables.
PyInstaller can be used to convert Python programs into stand-alone executables, under Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Solaris, and AIX. It is one of the recommended converters.
py2exe converts Python scripts into only executable on the Windows platform.
Cython is a static compiler for both the Python programming language and the extended Cython programming language.
I would like to compile some useful information about creating standalone files on Windows using Python 2.7.
I have used py2exe and it works, but I had some problems.
It has shown some problems for creating single files in Windows 64 bits: Using bundle_files = 1 with py2exe is not working;
It is necessary to create a setup.py file for it to work. http://www.py2exe.org/index.cgi/Tutorial#Step2;
I have had problems with dependencies that you have to solve by importing packages in the setup file;
I was not able to make it work together with PyQt.
This last reason made me try PyInstaller http://www.pyinstaller.org/.
In my opinion, it is much better because:
It is easier to use.
I suggest creating a .bat file with the following lines for example (pyinstaller.exe must be in in the Windows path):
pyinstaller.exe --onefile MyCode.py
You can create a single file, among other options (https://pyinstaller.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage.html#options).
I had only one problem using PyInstaller and multiprocessing package that was solved by using this recipe: https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/wiki/Recipe-Multiprocessing.
So, I think that, at least for python 2.7, a better and simpler option is PyInstaller.
And a third option is cx_Freeze, which is cross-platform.
pyinstaller yourfile.py -F --onefile
This creates a standalone EXE file on Windows.
Important note 1: The EXE file will be generated in a folder named 'dist'.
Important note 2: Do not forget --onefile flag
You can install PyInstaller using pip install PyInstaller
NOTE: In rare cases there are hidden dependencies...so if you run the EXE file and get missing library error (win32timezone in the example below) then use something like this:
pyinstaller --hiddenimport win32timezone -F "Backup Program.py"
I like PyInstaller - especially the "windowed" variant:
pyinstaller --onefile --windowed myscript.py
It will create one single *.exe file in a distination/folder.
You may like py2exe. You'll also find information in there for doing it on Linux.
Use py2exe.... use the below set up files:
from distutils.core import setup
import py2exe
from distutils.filelist import findall
import matplotlib
setup(
console = ['PlotMemInfo.py'],
options = {
'py2exe': {
'packages': ['matplotlib'],
'dll_excludes': ['libgdk-win32-2.0-0.dll',
'libgobject-2.0-0.dll',
'libgdk_pixbuf-2.0-0.dll']
}
},
data_files = matplotlib.get_py2exe_datafiles()
)
I also recommend PyInstaller for better backward compatibility such as Python 2.3 - 2.7.
For py2exe, you have to have Python 2.6.
For Python 3.2 scripts, the only choice is cx_Freeze. Build it from sources; otherwise it won't work.
For Python 2.x I suggest PyInstaller as it can package a Python program in a single executable, unlike cx_Freeze which outputs also libraries.
Since it seems to be missing from the current list of answers, I think it is worth mentioning that the standard library includes a zipapp module that can be used for this purpose. Its basic usage is just compressing a bunch of Python files into a zip file with extension .pyz than can be directly executed as python myapp.pyz, but you can also make a self-contained package from a requirements.txt file:
$ python -m pip install -r requirements.txt --target myapp
$ python -m zipapp -p "interpreter" myapp
Where interpreter can be something like /usr/bin/env python (see Specifying the Interpreter).
Usually, the generated .pyz / .pyzw file should be executable, in Unix because it gets marked as such and in Windows because Python installation usually registers those extensions. However, it is relatively easy to make a Windows executable that should work as long as the user has python3.dll in the path.
If you don't want to require the end user to install Python, you can distribute the application along with the embeddable Python package.
py2exe will make the EXE file you want, but you need to have the same version of MSVCR90.dll on the machine you're going to use your new EXE file.
See Tutorial for more information.
You can find the list of distribution utilities listed at Distribution Utilities.
I use bbfreeze and it has been working very well (yet to have Python 3 support though).
Not exactly a packaging of the Python code, but there is now also Grumpy from Google, which transpiles the code to Go.
It doesn't support the Python C API, so it may not work for all projects.
Using PyInstaller, I found a better method using shortcut to the .exe rather than making --onefile. Anyway, there are probably some data files around and if you're running a site-based app then your program depends on HTML, JavaScript, and CSS files too. There isn't any point in moving all these files somewhere... Instead what if we move the working path up?
Make a shortcut to the EXE file, move it at top and set the target and start-in paths as specified, to have relative paths going to dist\folder:
Target: %windir%\system32\cmd.exe /c start dist\web_wrapper\web_wrapper.exe
Start in: "%windir%\system32\cmd.exe /c start dist\web_wrapper\"
We can rename the shortcut to anything, so renaming to "GTFS-Manager".
Now when I double-click the shortcut, it's as if I python-ran the file! I found this approach better than the --onefile one as:
In onefile's case, there's a problem with a .dll missing for the Windows 7 OS which needs some prior installation, etc. Yawn. With the usual build with multiple files, no such issues.
All the files that my Python script uses (it's deploying a tornado web server and needs a whole freakin' website worth of files to be there!) don't need to be moved anywhere: I simply create the shortcut at top.
I can actually use this exact same folder on Ubuntu (run python3 myfile.py) and Windows (double-click the shortcut).
I don't need to bother with the overly complicated hacking of .spec file to include data files, etc.
Oh, remember to delete off the build folder after building. It will save on size.
Use Cython to convert to C, compile, and link with GCC.
Another could be, make the core functions in C (the ones you want to make hard to reverse), compile them and use Boost.Python to import the compiled code (plus you get a much faster code execution). Then use any tool mentioned to distribute.
I'm told that PyRun is also an option. It currently supports Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X.

Resources