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I'm trying to use Inkscape to create "pseudo-cylinders", pseudo because really the ends are 10 sided polygons. Anyway, I'm trying to use the Extrude extension. I installed Inkscape from the website and I got a message about needing lxml for python, apparently that's a common problem for macs running inkscape. So I uninstalled inkscape and reinstalled it using macports, thinking that that would ensure I had all of the dependencies.

Well now I go to use the extrude tool and I get a new error message, any thoughts?

I have Mac OS 10.7 running on an ageing macbook. Here's that error message.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "extrude.py", line 93, in <module>
    e.affect()
  File "/opt/local/share/inkscape/extensions/inkex.py", line 211, in affect
    self.parse()
  File "/opt/local/share/inkscape/extensions/inkex.py", line 139, in parse
    self.document = etree.parse(stream)
  File "lxml.etree.pyx", line 3201, in lxml.etree.parse (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:65033)
  File "parser.pxi", line 1593, in lxml.etree._parseDocument (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:93438)
  File "parser.pxi", line 1624, in lxml.etree._parseFilelikeDocument (src/lxml    /lxml.etree.c:93781)
  File "parser.pxi", line 1506, in lxml.etree._parseDocFromFilelike (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:92636)
  File "parser.pxi", line 1069, in lxml.etree._BaseParser._parseDocFromFilelike (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:89658)
  File "parser.pxi", line 577, in lxml.etree._ParserContext._handleParseResultDoc (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:84831)
  File "parser.pxi", line 676, in lxml.etree._handleParseResult (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:85936)
  File "parser.pxi", line 616, in lxml.etree._raiseParseError (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:85258)
lxml.etree.XMLSyntaxError: Document is empty, line 1, column 1

3 Answers 3

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It may still be missing. Perhaps manually installing lxml in Macports

port install py25-lxml

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The Extensions haven't been working out-of-the-box on OSX for quite a while. Just last week, I finally decided to figure out how hard it'd be to fix it and...it's actually incredibly easy. Here's the YouTube video tutorial I followed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO_kXrTbTWc

To quote the steps posted on the YouTube page:

  1. Open a new Finder window and browse to the directory where you installed Inkscape to (most likely '/Applications').
  2. select 'Inkscape', open the context menu (with the right mouse button or 'Ctrl+mouse button' for single-button mouse or 'Ctrl+tap' with the trackpad) and choose the entry 'Show Package Contents'
  3. within the package contents, browse to 'Contents > Resources > bin'
  4. in 'Contents > Resources > bin' open the file 'inkscape' in a plain-text editor (use drag&drop for example, or 'Open with…' from the context menu) [NOTE: I used Xcode for this]
  5. once you have the file (a shell script) open in the text editor, go to line 32. The content of line 32 is: export VERSIONER_PYTHON_PREFER_32_BIT­=yes
  6. above line 32, insert a new line with this text: export VERSIONER_PYTHON_VERSION=2.6
  7. save the changes
  8. test Inkscape

All credit (and personal 'thanks') goes to the author of the video, MestoZTutorials

Not sure why this isn't fixed in the regular builds, but glad I got it working

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  • Thanks, I'd found that solution already and it hadn't worked for me. I think I'll follow Alex Mundy's advice and try Blender.
    – EddyTheB
    Aug 15, 2013 at 17:17
  • @EddyTheB Bummer that it didn't work. It worked for me on 10.8.4 with the latest OSX version of Inkscape
    – DA.
    Aug 15, 2013 at 17:28
  • Yeah, I think I have a few different competing python installations, they've complicated getting plug-ins to work in other software in the past (like QGIS), so I imagine it's a similar issue here. Thanks for the suggestion though.
    – EddyTheB
    Aug 15, 2013 at 20:10
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You want a much easier solution? If you're doing 3D work, just get Blender. Aside from the professional level programs like Maya, Blender is literally as good as it gets. And it's open source, so it's free.

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  • Ok, thanks, yeah I'll give that a try. I'd avoided Blender because my laptop is showing it's age, but it's a very simple thing I want to draw so I'll give it a go.
    – EddyTheB
    Aug 15, 2013 at 17:19

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