Building Blender Windows 10

Hello all,

I am looking to get into Blender development. I am getting stuck in trying to build Blender for the first time. I am running a Windows 10 x64 rig. I have tried the diections on this page: https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Doc/Building_Blender/Windows

Where I am having issues is that the build keeps failing at the “make full” command. I have checked out both the 32 bit and 64 bit. I have rebooted several times, reinstalled visual studio but the build is still failing. I am getting the below error:

Visual Studio 2013 not found, trying Visual Studio 2015.
loading initial cache file c:\blender-git\blender\build_files\cmake\config\blender_full.cmake
loading initial cache file c:\blender-git\blender\build_files\cmake\config\blender_full.cmake
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:111 (project):
Failed to run MSBuild command:

MSBuild.exe

to get the value of VCTargetsPath:

Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 4.7.2556.0
[Microsoft .NET Framework, version 4.0.30319.42000]
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Build started 3/27/2018 8:47:35 PM.
Project "C:\blender-git\build_windows_Full_x64_vc14_Release\CMakeFiles\3.11.0-rc4\VCTargetsPath.vcxproj" on node 1 (default targets).
C:\blender-git\build_windows_Full_x64_vc14_Release\CMakeFiles\3.11.0-rc4\VCTargetsPath.vcxproj(15,2): error MSB4019: The imported project "C:\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.
Done Building Project "C:\blender-git\build_windows_Full_x64_vc14_Release\CMakeFiles\3.11.0-rc4\VCTargetsPath.vcxproj" (default targets) -- FAILED.


Build FAILED.


"C:\blender-git\build_windows_Full_x64_vc14_Release\CMakeFiles\3.11.0-rc4\VCTargetsPath.vcxproj" (default target) (1) ->
  C:\blender-git\build_windows_Full_x64_vc14_Release\CMakeFiles\3.11.0-rc4\VCTargetsPath.vcxproj(15,2): error MSB4019: The imported project "C:\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.


    0 Warning(s)
    1 Error(s)


Time Elapsed 00:00:00.15

Exit code: 1

– Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
See also “C:/blender-git/build_windows_Full_x64_vc14_Release/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log”.
Microsoft ® Build Engine version 4.7.2556.0
[Microsoft .NET Framework, version 4.0.30319.42000]
Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

MSBUILD : error MSB1009: Project file does not exist.
Switch: c:\blender-git\blender…\build_windows_Full_x64_vc14_Release\Blender.sln
“Build Failed”

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You haven’t used cmake to make the solution?

The “building Blender” docs are busted. I’m trying to make a python module that controls the whole Blender build process because, yes, it is quite over the top and there are many “gotchas”.

For instance, the docs say that you can use the make script if you don’t want to do the cmake steps. Well… turns out you really can’t. It simply doesn’t work because the make script will fail prior to the creation of the solution in my experience. You are actually better off doing the following:

  1. git and svn necessary code (you already did this)
  2. cmake the solution into a build dir (it will NOT let you cmake in the same dir as cmakelists.txt)
  3. jump into a Developer Command Prompt (alternitively, you can just run vcvars64.bat)
  4. msbuild Blender.sln target release
  5. msbuild INSTALL.VSX (or whatever extension it is)

You can check out my repo at

For a better understanding of the build steps if you know python.

It’s still in its infancy though, really hope that helps you

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