Installing InstaLOD for Blender

About this document

Installing InstaLOD for Blender is a quick and easy process that can be completed in less than five minutes. For more information on InstaLOD for Blender please navigate to the full Getting Started guide.

Installing InstaLOD for Blender

ATTENTION: Due to changes made to the script handling in Blender 2.82, rename the plugin file ‘__init__.py’ into ‘InstaLOD.py’ for version 2.82 and newer, and copy the contents of the ‘InstaLOD’ folder directly into the addons folder.

Download the latest version of InstaLOD for Blender from your InstaLOD Cloud account and follow the steps below:

Windows Installation

Copy the contents of the InstaLOD folder into your Blender addons folder, typically located at C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\<BlenderVersion>\scripts\addons.

MacOS Installation

Copy the InstaLOD folder to your Blender addon user folder, normally found at /Applications/Blender.app/Contents/Resources/<BlenderVersion>/scripts/addons

InstaLOD Pipeline

InstaLOD for Blender uses InstaLOD Pipeline as its processing backbone. Please note that InstaLOD Pipeline does not require installation. Simply download the latest version of InstaLOD Pipeline from your InstaLOD Cloud account and store it in a safe location (e.g. in your documents). When booting InstaLOD for Blender for the first time, you will be required to specify the location of the InstaLOD Pipeline folder. 

ATTENTION: Please note that no additional license entitlements are required for InstaLOD for Blender to successfully utilize InstaLOD Pipeline. You will simply not be able to use InstaLOD Pipeline seperately for batch processing via e.g. the command line. 

Getting started with InstaLOD for Blender

To open the InstaLOD window go to the preferences panel and select ‘Add-ons’. Inside the add-ons panel search for InstaLOD and enable it. InstaLOD for Blender will now spawn inside the viewport in the properties panel (default keyboard shortcut ‘n’).
If you want to automatically initialize InstaLOD whenever Blender starts, go to the menu entry File > Defaults > Save Startup File.

On the first start of InstaLOD, it is necessary to point InstaLOD for Blender to the installation directory of InstaLOD Pipeline.
Click the folder button and browse to the InstaLOD Pipeline installation directory on your workstation.

Activate InstaLOD License

If your machine has already been authorized for InstaLOD you can start using InstaLOD for Blender without further actions.
If your machine has not yet been authorized, you will be required to enter your license information in the dialog box to authorize your workstation.

Please refer to the InstaLOD Pipeline documentation for an overview of all features.