Creating an addon : quality and standards?

[Kevin Mather]

I am working on an addon which I might (eventually) try to publish as a “Community” addon.

I would like to meet all the usual quality requirements/goals for a good addon. I thought that I had found internet info related to this, but I’ve lost it and a few searches don’t seem to turn up anything obvious. I’m pretty sure it is “out there”.

Does anyone have recommended/favorite pointers? Thanks.

[Adrian Bellworthy]

Hey Techie!

Take a look at the Blender Support page, under documentation you will see Blender for Developers, Here you will find lots of documentation to assist you.

Also in the documentation section you will see Python API Reference, which will also be useful.

[Kevin Mather]

Thanks @adrian2301 . The Python style was a big part of what I was looking for – I had lost the trail. Also I vaguely remember that there are a lot of naming convention rules for addons?

(a little curious why handles sometimes show up at the top in the forum, sometimes not…)

[Kevin Mather]

I have used the API Reference somewhat. Worked through the “addons mini-tutorial” in the Blender manual a couple of times. The API Reference is very big, but often sparse, leaving quite a few questions. YouTube sometimes helps (if the video is dealing with the correct version). I guess as a last resort I can download and study the sources. This should provide the most definitive answers. Maybe if I am ambitious I can submit additions to the API docs.

[Adrian Bellworthy]

When working in Blender , you can also have an info editor area. This will display the code for every thing you do.

Like adding a cube:

You can then copy and paste this into your .py script.

[Kevin Mather]

Thanks @adrian2301 that might be quite helpful. I stumbled through the Git steps (since I’m accustomed to using Mercurial), and now I can actually browse through the sources too.

I also found useful info in the Blender Wiki. So I think what I need is in 3 places (manual, API, Wiki). A bit scattered, and sometimes difficult to remember what I saw where.

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