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Setting up pyalicevision

pyalicevision is AliceVision's Python bindings. It's not available on PyPI and must be built from source or obtained from a Meshroom installation.

Option 1: Use Meshroom's setup script (Recommended)

If you have a Meshroom development environment:

# Source the Meshroom environment before running Python
source /path/to/Meshroom/setup_env.sh
python your_script.py

Creating a wrapper script

Create a script to easily run Python with pyalicevision:

#!/bin/bash
# run_with_pyav.sh
source /path/to/Meshroom/setup_env.sh
python "$@"

Usage:

./run_with_pyav.sh your_script.py

Option 2: Set environment variables manually

Add to your .bashrc or activate script:

export ALICEVISION_ROOT="/path/to/AV_install"
export ALICEVISION_DEPS_ROOT="/path/to/AliceVisionDeps"

# Library path for C++ dependencies
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${ALICEVISION_DEPS_ROOT}/lib:${ALICEVISION_ROOT}/lib:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}"

# Python path for pyalicevision
export PYTHONPATH="${ALICEVISION_ROOT}/lib/python:${ALICEVISION_ROOT}/lib/python3.11/site-packages:${PYTHONPATH}"

Option 3: Conda environment integration

If you use conda (e.g., py_eval environment), you can create an activation script:

# Create activation script
mkdir -p $CONDA_PREFIX/etc/conda/activate.d
cat > $CONDA_PREFIX/etc/conda/activate.d/pyalicevision.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
export ALICEVISION_ROOT="/home/bbrument/dev/alicevision/AV_install"
export ALICEVISION_DEPS_ROOT="/home/bbrument/dev/alicevision/AliceVisionDeps-2025.09.12-ubuntu22.04-cuda12.1.1"
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${ALICEVISION_DEPS_ROOT}/lib:${ALICEVISION_ROOT}/lib:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}"
export PYTHONPATH="${ALICEVISION_ROOT}/lib/python:${ALICEVISION_ROOT}/lib/python3.11/site-packages:${PYTHONPATH}"
EOF

# Create deactivation script
mkdir -p $CONDA_PREFIX/etc/conda/deactivate.d
cat > $CONDA_PREFIX/etc/conda/deactivate.d/pyalicevision.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
# Reset variables (optional - they'll be overwritten on next activation anyway)
unset ALICEVISION_ROOT
unset ALICEVISION_DEPS_ROOT
EOF

chmod +x $CONDA_PREFIX/etc/conda/activate.d/pyalicevision.sh
chmod +x $CONDA_PREFIX/etc/conda/deactivate.d/pyalicevision.sh

Then reactivate your environment:

conda deactivate
conda activate py_eval

Verifying Installation

try:
    from pyalicevision import sfmData, sfmDataIO
    print("✓ pyalicevision available")
except ImportError as e:
    print(f"✗ pyalicevision not available: {e}")

Fallback Mode

pyalicevisionlib works without pyalicevision by parsing SfMData JSON files directly. You'll see a warning at import:

Warning: pyalicevision not found. Using JSON fallback.

This is fine for most use cases. pyalicevision is only required for:

  • Reading binary SfMData formats (.sfm, .abc)
  • Advanced intrinsics (distortion models)
  • Writing SfMData files