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Debugging

A variety a different debugging methods exist for syclops. They consist of either visually debugging a generated scene or IDE debugging of the python code.

🐝 Visually Debug a Job File

To better understand, how a scene looks inside of Blender, the -d scene flag can be used to break the pipeline at a certain point and open the Blender GUI. 

syclops -c -j src/syclops-pipeline/examples/example_job.yaml -d scene
The breakpoint is set inside the job file for a sensor output. The pipeline will break befor the rendering of that output occurs and cannot continue afterwards.

In order to add a breakpoint, add the following attribute to a sensor output: 

debug_breakpoint: True
Example of this is given in the example_job.syclops.yaml file (link). Blender will open right before the RGB image is rendered.

Note

Only one breakpoint can be set per job file. Other outputs before the breakpoint will be rendered, but the pipeline will stop after the breakpoint.

🐜 Code Debugging

Either the pipeline code or the Blender code can be debugged. It is strongly recommended to use VSCode for debugging, but other IDEs may work as well.

To debug the code, add the -d pipeline-code or -d blender-code flag to the syclops command. Syclops will wait for a debugger to attach to the process on port 5678.

Breakpoints have to be set in the code inside the install folder, since the src folder is not used for execution.

Note

To attach VSCode to the process and start debugging, add the following configuration to the launch.json file and press F5.

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
        "name": "Syclops: Attach",
        "type": "python",
        "request": "attach",
        "connect": {
          "host": "localhost",
          "port": 5678
            }
        }
    ]
}
  1. Open your project in PyCharm.
  2. Click on the Run menu and select Edit Configurations...
  3. In the left-hand menu, click on the + button and select Python Remote Debug from the dropdown menu.
  4. In the Configuration tab, enter a name for your configuration (e.g. Syclops: Attach).
  5. In the Debugger tab, ensure that the Localhost checkbox is selected under Address.
  6. Enter 5678 as the port number in the Port field.
  7. Click Apply and then OK to save the configuration.