Installation / Blender

Prerequisites

Verge3D can run on top of Blender, an open source 3D modeling and animation suite, which should be installed first (we support versions 3.0-4.2). You can download Blender for free from the official website.

Downloading Verge3D

Download Verge3D for Blender for your operating system (.exe installer for Windows, or XZ archive for macOS, Linux, or ChromeOS).

Installation for Windows

Double click on the .exe file to run the installer.

Running Verge3D for Blender installation

Follow the link to read the recent version of Verge3D license agreement.

Verge3D for Blender EULA

Choose components you want to install.

Choosing Verge3D components

Now choose an installation folder that have enough permissions for reading and writing (or better leave it by default).

Choosing installation folder in Verge3D installer

Wait until the installer finishes copying files to the target directory.

Verge3D installation work-in-progress

Once installation complete you'll see the following screen.

Verge3D installation complete

Press finish and launch Blender. If you had it running, be sure to close and open it again.

In case if you're using Blender version 4.1 or below, additional step is required. Open the Preferences window and go to the Add-ons tab. Find and enable the Verge3D addon, then close the window.

Activating Verge3D addon in Blender

You may also launch the App Manager without running Blender by clicking on the desktop icon or using the Start menu.

Running Verge3D for Blender with desktop icon or start menu

Installation for macOS or Linux

Unpack the XZ archive to a directory of your choice. Make sure you have enough permissions to read/write in this folder. Installing in a system directory is not recommended.

In Blender, invoke the Preferences window by selecting the corresponding option in the Edit menu.

Opening Blender preferences

The next steps will depend on what version of Blender you use.

Blender 4.2+

On the Get Extensions tab, click on the Repositories menu. In the opened dialog click on the Add (+) button to add a new repository.

Repositories in Blender

Select Add Local Repository.

Adding local repo in Blender

In the following dialog specify "Soft8Soft" as the repository name, activate Custom Directory, then specify the "addons" folder located inside Verge3D installation folder. Click Create button.

Pay attention to this step. The specified folder should end with "addons", not "addons/verge3d".

Specifying repo in Blender

Click View Details from the extension menu (v) to bring the extension settings (alternatively you could find Verge3D on the Add-ons tab).

View extension details in Blender

Enable the Verge3D extension, then close the Blender Preferences window.

Enabling extension in Blender

Installation complete!

Before Blender 4.2

On the File Paths tab, find the Script Directories panel. There click on the Add (or +) button to add the folder in which Verge3D is installed. Close the Preferences window and restart Blender.

Modifying Scripts path in Blender

Open the Preferences window again and go to the Add-ons tab. Find and enable the Verge3D addon, then close the window.

Activating Verge3D addon in Blender

Installation complete!

Installation for ChromeOS

To run Verge3D on ChromeOS you'll need to have Blender, which is installed via Linux development environment.

Installing Linux Development Environment

Find Developers tab in ChromeOS settings, when click Turn on near the Linux development environment:

ChromeOS developer settings

On the next screen click Next:

Set up Linux developer environenment screen

Then select a user name for the Linux environment, as well as disk size. The default 10 GB should be enough in most cases. You might need to select a greater value only if you're going to develop really huge apps.

Choosing user name and size for Linux developer environenment

The installation process begins:

Linux developer environenment installation process

As soon it is complete, continue to the next stage.

Installing Blender on ChromeOS

To install Blender on ChromeOS, launch terminal:

ChromeOS terminal

Execute the following command to update the repository metadata:

sudo apt update ChromeOS update repos

Then install Blender (with all its dependencies):

sudo apt install blender ChromeOS install Blender

Verge3D add-on also requires the numpy library (used by the exporter) and the zenity tool (to make App Manager settings dialogs work properly). Install both in the similar manner:

sudo apt install python3-numpy zenity ChromeOS install numpy

Blender installed! You can run it using the shortcut like any other ChromeOS application:

ChromeOS Blender lanucher

Blender version which comes with ChromeOS can be a bit old (e.g. version 3.4.1 in ChromeOS 121+). If you want the latest Blender, download it from the blender.org website and install it to some folder inside the Linux environment.

Installing Verge3D

Open Verge3D XZ archive and unpack it to a folder of your choice. To simplify assignment of Verge3D folder in Blender settings, you better unpack verge3d_blender right into Linux files:

Unpacking Verge3D on Chromeos

In Blender, invoke the Preferences window by selecting the corresponding option in the Edit menu, then go to File Paths:

Modifying settings in Blender for ChromeOS

On the File Paths tab, find the Scripts field and make it point to the folder in which Verge3D is installed. Close the Preferences window and restart Blender.

Modifying Scripts path in Blender for ChromeOS

Open the Preferences window again and go to the Add-ons tab. Find and enable the Verge3D addon, then close the window.

Activating addon in Blender for ChromeOS

Click on the App Manager button and proceed to the next stage.

First Run

On first run, a splash screen is shown up, proposing to setup the path to the Verge3D applications folder. You might leave it as is. In this case, Verge3D applications will be created inside the Linux environment:

ChromeOS first run

Once you have done with the application folder, click Apply. Installation complete!

Alternatively, if you want to keep your applications in ChromeOS instead, do the following. Create some folder in ChromeOS Files, right-click on it and select Share with Linux in the menu. In the similar manner you can provide a folder located on Google Drive or Windows share.

Unpacking Verge3D on Chromeos

Sharing the folder makes it accessible by the /mnt/chromeos/... path inside Linux:

ChromeOS first run (modified path)

Troubleshooting

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'numpy'

When on Linux/ChromeOS, you might see the following error upon Verge3D activation, saying that there is no module named numpy:

ModuleNotFoundError in Blender

If you see it, install numpy with your system package manager, e.g. on Ubuntu:

sudo apt install python3-numpy

Then try activating the Verge3D add-on again.

What's Next

Familiarize yourself with the basics!

Got Questions?

Feel free to ask on the forums!