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Addon Installation and Uninstallation (Blender 2.8 ‐ 4.1)

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Ryan Guy edited this page Jul 15, 2024 · 2 revisions

This addon installation guide is for Blender 2.8 to 4.1. For installation in Blender 4.2 and later, click here.

Installation Instructions

This addon installation guide is for Blender 2.8 to 4.1. For installation in Blender 4.2 and later, click here.

Installing the FLIP Fluids addon is similar to installing other addons in Blender. You will need the FLIP Fluids addon installation file to proceed with the installation. This file can be found in the product downloads and is a zip file. Blender addon zip files are installed directly and should not be extracted before installation.

Related Topics:

Quick Installation Instructions

The following steps are brief instructions for how to install the FLIP Fluids addon. For detailed instructions with screenshots, see the Detailed Installation Instructions below.

Important: Only one version of the addon should be installed at a time. If you are updating the addon to a newer version, such as from the demo or an older version, first uninstall the previous version of the addon. Refer to the Uninstallation Instructions.

  1. Restart or open Blender.
  2. Open the Blender addon preferences menu (Edit > Preferences > Add-ons).
  3. Click the Install... operator and select the FLIP Fluids addon installation file.
  4. Enable the addon by activating the checkbox.
  5. Expand the FLIP Fluids preferences and click the Complete Installation operator.
  6. (Optional) Install the FLIP Fluids Mixbox color blending plugin. See Mixbox Installation Instructions for more information.
  7. (Optional) Install the FLIP Fluids Preset Scenes Library package. See Preset Library Installation Instructions for more information.

The FLIP Fluids addon has now been installed.

Detailed Installation Instructions

Important: Only one version of the addon should be installed at a time. If you are updating the addon to a newer version, such as from the demo or an older version, first uninstall the previous version of the addon. Refer to the Uninstallation Instructions.

  1. Download the FLIP Fluids addon installation file from the product downloads.
  2. Restart or Open Blender.
  3. Open the Blender preferences menu (Edit > Preferences).

blender_preferences_menu

  1. Select the Add-ons tab.

blender_preferences_addons_tab

  1. Click the Install... operator to open the file browser.

blender_addons_install_operator

  1. Select the FLIP Fluids addon installation file and click Install Add-on. Blender may pause for a few seconds while the files are installed to your system.

install_addon_file

  1. Blender should now automatically filter to display only the FLIP Fluids addon. If you do not see this display, search for FLIP Fluids in the addon search bar.

search_flip_fluids

  1. Enable the FLIP Fluids addon by activating the checkbox. Blender may pause for a few seconds while the files are loaded into Blender.

enable_flip_fluids_checkbox

  1. Expand the FLIP Fluids preferences menu by clicking the triangle icon.

expand_flip_fluids_preferences

  1. Click the Complete Installation operator to finish installing the FLIP Fluids addon. Alternatively, Blender may be restarted to complete the installation process.

flip_fluids_complete_installation

  1. After completing the installation, the full FLIP Fluids addon preferences are now available and the addon is now ready to be used.

image

  1. Upon closing Blender, your enabled addons and preferences will be automatically saved by default. We recommend saving the preferences now. Click the ☰ icon in the lower left corner and select Save Preferences.

image

  1. (Optional) Install the FLIP Fluids Mixbox color blending plugin. See Mixbox Installation Instructions for more information.

  2. (Optional) Install the FLIP Fluids Preset Scenes Library package. See Preset Library Installation Instructions for more information.

Installing the FLIP Fluids Mixbox color blending plugin

The FLIP Fluids Mixbox plugin is an optional feature set that simulates the physically based mixing of colors to help you create vibrant multi-color simulations. The Mixbox pigment mixing technology is developed by Secret Weapons. Learn more about Mixbox here: https://scrtwpns.com/mixbox/

Refer to the Mixbox Installation and Uninstallation documentation or watch our installation and usage guide for more details.

Installing the FLIP Fluids Preset Library

The FLIP Fluids Addon Preset Library is a package of supplementary Blend files containing full simulation setups that showcase popular features of the FLIP Fluids Addon. The FLIP Fluids Addon preset scenes library package can now be installed into the Blender Asset Browser. This addon feature is currently in an initial test phase.

Refer to the Preset Library Installation Instructions documentation or watch our installation and usage guide (timestamp: 0:59) for more details.

Installation Troubleshooting

Issues and errors related to installing the FLIP Fluids addon are rare, but may occur due to incorrect installation, unexpected system configurations, or bugs within Blender. Refer to the Addon Installation Troubleshooting documentation for how to verify your FLIP Fluids addon installation file, verify your FLIP Fluids installation, and for how to manually install the FLIP Fluids addon.

Installation Error Messages

This section will detail possible error messages and you may encounter during installation or uninstallation of the FLIP Fluids addon, and their solutions. The solution for most error messages during installation/uninstallation is to Restart Blender and try again.

  1. Error when activating the FLIP Fluids addon: ValueError: register_class(...): already registered as a subclass 'FlipFluidHelperSelectDomain'

    Solution: Restart Blender and try activating the addon again.

  2. Error when activating the FLIP Fluids addon: ValueError: register_class(...): already registered as a subclass 'FLIPFluidMeshBounds'

    Solution: Restart Blender and try activating the addon again.

  3. Error when removing FLIP Fluids addon: PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied: 'C:\\Users\\username\\AppData\\Roaming\\Blender Foundation\\Blender\\3.4\\scripts\\addons\\flip_fluids_addon\\pyfluid\\lib\\libblpyfluidrelease.dll'

    Solution: File is currently in use by the addon. Restart Blender and try removing the addon again.

Contact Us

Are you experiencing issues related to installing the FLIP Fluids addon? Do not hesitate to contact us on any of the marketplaces where you have purchased the FLIP Fluids addon or at support[at]flipfluids.com. Please check for and include any error message. You can retrieve full error message by opening the Blender System Console window. This window can be opened on Windows with Blender > Window > Toggle System Console or on Linux/MacOS by launching Blender from the command line.

Uninstallation Instructions

Uninstalling the FLIP Fluids addon is similar to uninstalling other addons in Blender. It is important to uninstall any previous versions of the FLIP Fluids addon before installing a new version. Only one version of the FLIP Fluids addon should be installed at any time.

Quick Uninstallation Instructions

The following steps are brief instructions for how to uninstall the FLIP Fluids addon. For detailed instructions with screenshots, see the Detailed Uninstallation Instructions below.

  1. Restart or open Blender. If Blender is already open, restarting before uninstallation is important to ensure that all addon files can be removed and that no files are in use.
  2. Open the Blender addon preferences menu (Edit > Preferences > Add-ons) and search for FLIP Fluids
  3. Disable the addon by deactivating the checkbox.
  4. Expand the addon preferences and select the Remove operator.
  5. Restart Blender.

The FLIP Fluids addon has now been uninstalled.

Detailed Uninstallation Instructions

  1. Restart or open Blender. If Blender is already open, restarting before uninstallation is important to ensure that all addon files can be removed and that no files are in use.
  2. Open the Blender preferences menu (Edit > Preferences).

blender_preferences_menu

  1. Select the Add-ons tab.

blender_preferences_addons_tab

  1. Search for FLIP Fluids in the addon search bar.

search_flip_fluids_uninstall

  1. Disable the addon by deactivating the checkbox.

flip_fluids_deactivate

  1. Expand the addon preferences by clicking on the triangle icon.

expand_preferences_uninstall

  1. Click the Remove operator to delete the addon from your system and restart Blender.

flip_fluids_remove

The FLIP Fluids addon has now been uninstalled.

Updating the FLIP Fluids Addon

Refer to the following instructions for how to update the FLIP Fluids addon to a new version:

  1. Download the FLIP Fluids addon installation file from the product downloads.
  2. Open or restart Blender.
  3. Uninstall the currently installed version of the FLIP Fluids addon and restart Blender (See Uninstallation Instructions).
  4. Install the new version of the FLIP Fluids addon (See Installation Instructions).
  5. Restart Blender to reload the updated addon scripts.

The FLIP Fluids addon is in constant development and periodically receives updates to add new features, bug fixes, and compatibility support for newer versions of Blender. Newer versions of Blender often require changes in the FLIP Fluids addon for complete compatibility support.

New versions of the FLIP Fluids addon that add support for a new version of Blender are typically released within a few days of the Blender release. To see if a newer version of the FLIP Fluids addon is available, check the list of currently available product downloads.

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