How to

Here you'll find short answers to "How do I..?" types of questions. These how-to guides don't cover topics in depth – you'll find that material in the Using Avalon and the Reference. However, these guides will help you quickly accomplish common tasks.

Install

Let's get cooking!

Reading Code

You have two options for reading code in this document, one for Windows (cmd) and one for Unix system, including MacOS (bash).

cmd

bash

These lines are for cmd.exe, typically used in Windows

These lines are for bash, typically used in MacOS and Linux

Prerequisites

In order to use Avalon, here's what you need.

• Windows, Linux or OSX
• Git 2.0 or above
• Python 3.6 or above
• MongoDB Community Server 3.4 or above

Ensure you have PyQt5 installed.

pip install PyQt5==5.12

Avalon may run with newer version of PyQt5, but if you encounter any issues, please revert to this exact version.

Test installations

Make sure that you are able to successfully type these commands before continuing.

cmd

bash

python --version
rem Python 3.6.1
python -c "from PyQt5.QtCore import PYQT_VERSION_STR as version;print(version)"
rem 5.9
git --version
rem git version 2.8.3.windows.1
mongo --eval "db.version()" --quiet
rem 3.6.4

Trouble?

If 'mongo' is not recognized as an internal or external command, add it to your PATH and try again.

set PATH=C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\3.6\bin;%PATH%
setx PATH "C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\3.6\bin;%PATH%"

If mongo is reporting connectivity problems, try creating the default storage directory and starting the MongoDB server, mongod.exe.

mkdir c:\data\db
start "MongoDB" "c:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\3.6\bin\mongod.exe"

• See Install MongoDB Community Edition on Windows for details.

python --version
# Python 3.6.1
python -c "from PyQt5.QtCore import PYQT_VERSION_STR as version;print(version)"
# 5.9
git --version
# git version 2.8.3.linux.1
mongo --eval "db.version()" --quiet
# 3.4.4

Trouble?

• For Red Hat and CentOS 7 systems, see here for details.

Download

At this point we are ready to download Avalon, distributed as a single directory with dependencies included.

cmd

bash

git clone https://github.com/getavalon/setup avalon-setup --recursive
cd avalon-setup
git submodule update --recursive --remote

git clone https://github.com/getavalon/setup avalon-setup --recursive
cd avalon-setup
git submodule update --recursive --remote

Updating Avalon

See Update to learn how to update including all its submodules at a later date.

Command-line Interface

Avalon offers a command-line interface through which every interaction takes place.

cmd

bash

set PATH=%cd%\avalon-setup;%PATH%

export PATH=$(pwd)/avalon-setup:$PATH

You can test the success of this operation by calling --help.

avalon --help

In order to make this command available permanently, you can add it to your system environment.

setx PATH "%cd%\avalon-setup;%PATH%"

echo PATH=$(pwd)/avalon-setup:$PATH >> ~/.bashrc

Trouble with environment variables?

Avalon uses environment variables a lot. A thorough understanding of them is an important part of maintaining an Avalon pipeline.

See Environment Variables for learning resources.

Demo

If you have just discovered Avalon and would like to take it for a spin, this section is for you.

Prerequisites

• Autodesk Maya 2015 or above.

Upload Example Project

Avalon ships with at least one example project. In order to make use of it, we'll upload it into your database.

Your Database

If you installed MongoDB locally then the default address is mongodb://localhost:27017

cmd

bash

avalon --import batman

That's it. Now we're ready to launch Maya through Avalon.

avalon

In this project, you'll find a number of assets, including a character - Bruce - and an animated shot - shot1.

Go ahead and open up Maya and load a few assets!

Update

To update avalon-setup, type this.

$ cd avalon-setup
$ git pull
$ git submodule init
$ git submodule update --recursive

It is safe to run these as many times as you'd like.