Quick Start

This topic shows the quickest way to get AVBlocks for Python running on Windows. You need PowerShell, Python 3.12 or higher and nothing else: no IDE or project files. The steps are: install the Python SDK, download AVBlocks Core, point the SDK to it, and run a script.

All scripts are PowerShell

Install uv if you don’t have it:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

1. Create a virtual environment and install the SDK

The Python must match the architecture of your machine, so that it can load the AVBlocks Core library: x64 Python on AMD64, arm64 Python on ARM64.

New-Item -Force -ItemType Directory ~/avblocks/hello
cd ~/avblocks/hello

Select the Python architecture. Use one of the following two blocks, depending on your machine:

# x64 (AMD64): use this one or the arm64 one, not both
$env:UV_PYTHON_ARCH = "x86_64"

# ARM64: use this one or the x64 one, not both
$env:UV_PYTHON_ARCH = "aarch64"

Create the virtual environment and install the SDK:

uv venv --python 3.12
.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

uv pip install git+https://github.com/avblocks/avblocks-py.git@3.4.0.2

2. Download AVBlocks Core

Download the demo version of AVBlocks Core into ./sdk:

$BaseUrl = "https://github.com/avblocks/avblocks-core/releases/download"
$Version = "v3.4.0-demo.1"

# select the build that matches the machine
if ($env:PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE -eq "ARM64") { $Platform = "windows-arm64"; $Arch = "arm64" } else { $Platform = "windows"; $Arch = "x64" }

New-Item -Force -ItemType Directory ./sdk
cd ./sdk

curl.exe `
  --location `
  --output "avblocks-$Version-$Platform.zip" `
  "${BaseUrl}/${Version}/avblocks-$Version-$Platform.zip"

Expand-Archive -Force -Path "avblocks-$Version-$Platform.zip" -DestinationPath .

cd ..

3. Point the SDK to AVBlocks Core

Set AVBLOCKS_CORE_PATH to the directory that contains AVBlocks64.dll:

$env:AVBLOCKS_CORE_PATH = "$PWD\sdk\lib\$Arch"

4. Run a script

Create the file hello.py:

from avblocks import Library

Library.initialize()

print(Library.description())

Library.shutdown()

Run it:

python hello.py

The output looks similar to this:

AVBlocks.Python 3.4.0, core: AVBlocks 3.4.0 (ba37215) x64 Release Demo Windows

The environment variable is only set in the current PowerShell window. In a new window run .venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1 and the $env:AVBLOCKS_CORE_PATH = ... command again.

Next steps