Development Branch: Installation ImportError about cellblender

[cnlbob]

There are a number of ways that your zip file might have been created. We have a make file that runs a Python script to determine which files belong in the zip file. The command in the makefile is:

SOURCES = $(shell python cellblender_source_info.py)

That should run the python script named "cellblender_source_info.py" which returns a list of all the source files to be included in the zip file. That file does include "cellblender_utils.py", so I'm not sure why that file is not being included in the zip file that you have. Can you unzip the file and post a directory listing of the files at the top level (in the "cellblender" directory)? If so, that might help.

Also, for your information, here are the links to the two files I mentioned in github:

https://github.com/mcellteam/cellblender/blob/development/makefile
https://github.com/mcellteam/cellblender/blob/development/cellblender_source_info.py

[BKPetkov]

@cnlbob I just now downloaded the latest ZIP from the Development branch of your repository. The same error is given. Must any work be done to the files before Importing to Blender?

Again, I have no issue importing the ZIP from the Master branch of your repository. The error emerges only with the Development branch, which I would like to use for the included Data Model Scripting capabilities as referenced (by you?) here: http://mmbios.org/mcell-cellblender-forum/model-creation-mcell/69-mcell-output

Below are the top level files after unzipping:

CHANGELOG.md cellblender_scripting.py
LICENSE.txt cellblender_simulation.py
META-INF cellblender_source_info.py
README.md cellblender_surface_classes.py
SimControl.c cellblender_surface_regions.py
SimControl.java cellblender_utils.py
init.py data_model.py
bng data_plotters
cellblender_glyphs.py developer_utilities
cellblender_id.py git_hooks
cellblender_initialization.py glyph_library.blend
cellblender_legacy.py icons
cellblender_main.py io_mesh_mcell_mdl
cellblender_meshalyzer.py libMCell
cellblender_mol_viz.py makefile
cellblender_molecules.py mdl
cellblender_objects.py object_surface_regions.py
cellblender_partitions.py parameter_system.py
cellblender_preferences.py run_simulations.py
cellblender_project.py run_wrapper.py
cellblender_reaction_output.py sim_runner_queue.py
cellblender_reactions.py test_suite
cellblender_release.py

[jczech]

First, here's the tldr to fix your problem:

• unzip cellblender-development.zip
• rename cellblender-development to cellblender (on linux, do this: mv cellblender-development cellblender)
• zip renamed cellblender directory (on linux: zip -r cellblender.zip cellblender)
• now you can install it through Blender like you normally would

Now here's the long explanation of why this is happening if you're interested. CellBlender itself expects its directory name to be cellblender. When you grab the zip file of a specific branch directly from github, it automatically renames the directory by appending a hyphen and the branch name (hence you end up with cellblender-development). When python is importing modules (e.g. import cellblender.cellblender_utils), it can't find cellblender, since it is now cellblender-development.

A second point I should probably mention is that, although the method I outlined for installing CellBlender should work, this is not how we create a zip of CellBlender for regular distribution. There is a makefile in the main cellblender directory that generates the zip file. If you run into other small issues, it might be related to this fact.

[BKPetkov]

Thank you, this has fixed my issue. Admittedly a simple one!