Fixing Python Installation Issues

After a fresh install of Clarisse, Clarisse may prompt you with an error message regarding a Python installation issue.

Please note that sometimes this error message is not displayed however, you only can see File > Quit in Clarisse’s application main menu bar. These problems typically occur when:

• Python is not properly installed on your operating system
• The location of the python path environment variables are not properly set
• The version of Python installed on the system is not supported. Clarisse 5 only supports Python 3.7.x because of its compliance to VFX Reference Platform 2020. Older or newer versions such as 3.8.x or 3.9.x are not supported.

Either case, it shouldn't take more than 5-15 mins to solve the problem! But before finding the right solution, we first have to identify what’s the issue with your installation.

A. Checking Python Installation

Press Cmd + Space to open Spotlight, type Terminal and then press the Enter key. In the Terminal type python and press the Enter key. If you have a error message such as:

-bash: python: command not found

Then Python is not installed and you need to go to Step B

However, if you see a command-line window displaying a message such as:

Python 3.7.6 (v3.7.6:43364a7ae0, Dec 18 2019, 14:18:50) [Clang 6.0 (clang-600.0.57)] on darwin Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>>

Then Python is properly installed and you can directly skip to Step C. 

B. Making a clean installation of Python 3.7.x 64-bit

Our goal here is to install the proper version of Python

1. Download Python 3.7.9 64-bit

2. Install it

3. Launch Clarisse and if the problem persists go to Step C

C. Editing clarisse.env file

Our goal here is to find where python is installed on the system.

1. Press Cmd + Space to open Spotlight, type Terminal and then press the Enter key. In the Terminal, type python and press the Enter key.

2. In the python shell, type import sys;print(sys.path) and press Enter key. You should get something like this:

['', '/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python37.zip', '/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7', '/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/lib-dynload', '/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages']

In this example we can see Python is installed in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7

3. Now go to this location /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/Isotropix/Clarisse. If you can't find the Library folder, it is because the folder hidden. Please follow this tutorial to resolve the issue.

Inside the folder, you should see a folder for each version of Clarisse you have installed (for example 3.6, 4.0, 5.0...). Go to the one you are troubleshooting. You will find a few files there. Open clarisse.env file using any text editor programs or create it if it doesn’t exist.

In our example, Python was installed in /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7. In clarisse.env file make sure you have:

IX_PYTHON3HOME=/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7 IX_PYTHON3PATH=/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib IX_SHELF_CONFIG_FILE=$IX_PYTHON_API_PATH/shelves/shelf.cfg IX_MENU_CONFIG_FILE=$IX_PYTHON_API_PATH/menus/init_menus.py

4. Run Clarisse and that's it!