Running venv with mayapy

The Python virtual environment cannot be called directly from mayapy. Instead a soft link needs to be made to mayapy from a command called "python" within the same directory, and venv needs to be called from this python command.

On Windows

Open a command window and change directory to C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya<VersionNumber>\bin\.

Create a soft link to mayapy from a command named python:

bin> mklink python.exe mayapy.exe
symbolic link created for python.exe <<===>> mayapy.exe

Run venv using the python command you linked to mayapy:

bin> python -m venv_dir

On macOS

Open a terminal window and change directory to /Applications/Autodesk/maya<VersionNumber>/Maya.app/Contents/bin/ .

Create a soft link to mayapy from a command named python:

$ ln -s -f mayapy python
$ ls -l python
lrwxr-xr-x  1 user  staff  6  6 Oct 16:29 python -> mayapy

Run venv using the python command you linked to mayapy:

bin> python -m venv_dir

On Linux

Open a terminal window and change directory to /usr/autodesk/Maya<VersionNumber>/bin/.

Create a soft link to mayapy from a command named python:

$ ln -s -f mayapy python
$ ls -l python
lrwxr-xr-x  1 user  staff  6  6 Oct 16:29 python -> mayapy

Run venv using the python command you linked to mayapy:

bin> python -m venv_dir