Fully Agnostic Atomic Render Environment

FAARE is a pure-Python package for automated rendering of VASP structures on headless servers. Note that FAARE is designed for Linux Debian/Ubuntu and is not intended to work on other operating systems.

Installation

Installing Blender

FAARE is designed to operate with Blender LTS 3.6 and assumes Blender is installed in the /opt folder. Below, a brief set of instructions are provided to install Blender.

sudo apt install -y libxrender-dev libxxf86vm-dev libxfixes-dev libxi-dev libxkbcommon-dev libsm-dev 
sudo mkdir /opt
cd /opt
sudo wget https://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/blender/release/Blender3.6/blender-3.6.7-linux-x64.tar.xz
sudo tar -xvf blender-3.6.7-linux-x64.tar.xz
sudo rm blender-3.6.7-linux-x64.tar.xz

PyPi

First, make sure the required dependencies are installed

sudo apt install python3-venv

Next, create a virtual environment (compliant with PEP668) and activate it.

python3 -m venv ~/.venv
source ~/.venv/bin/activate

Finally, install faare in your virtual environment. The installation script will automatically download all dependencies.

pip install faare

Testing your installation

Create a new folder and place in the folder an OUTCAR file. Next, create a run.py file that has the following contents

from faare import Faare
import os

def main():
    ROOT = os.path.dirname(__file__)

    faare = Faare()
    faare.build_render(os.path.join(ROOT, 'OUTCAR'),
                       os.path.join(ROOT, 'manifest.json'))
    faare.execute_render(os.path.join(ROOT, 'manifest.json'),
                         os.path.join(ROOT, 'render.png'),
                         os.path.join(ROOT, 'renderlog.txt'))

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Save the file and run it using python run.py. Three files should be written in the folder:

• render.png: The picture of your system.
• renderlog.txt: A log file on the rendering procedure.
• manifest.json: A manifest file containing all the Blender settings.

Updating your installation

Assuming you are logged into your Python virtual environment, run

pip install faare --upgrade

Manual

See: https://faare-inorganic-materials-chemistry-6980722ff50f253a4f45dd9bd22.pages.tue.nl/