The ultimate Pi3D FAQ Page – All the questions, all the answers and more

The current version of Pi3D as of December 2020 is 2.41.

In Terminal enter:
python3 -c 'import pi3d; print(pi3d.__version__)'

In Terminal enter:
sudo pip3 install pi3d --upgrade

To get the latest example files, PictureFrame2020.py, etc. enter
wget https://github.com/pi3d/pi3d_demos/archive/master.zip && unzip master.zip && mv pi3d_demos pi3d_demos_old && mv pi3d_demos-master pi3d_demos && rm master.zip

Your previous directory will be renamed to “pi3d_demos_old”. To delete it, see below.

Alternatively, go to the Pi3D GitHub site and download just the files that have been updated.

The documentation is here: https://pi3d.github.io/html/ReadMe.html#acknowledgements
The Github page is here: https://github.com/pi3d/pi3d_demos

Pi3D will run on the Raspberry Pi 2, 3 and 4. It also runs on the Raspberry Pi Zero but we found that as soon as you also launch other programs at the same time, the memory limitations of the Pi Zero may cause issues.

Absolutely, and there are even great articles on this subject.

Pi3D has an in-build remote control functionality based on MQTT messages.
These are the parameters you can change or commands you can send:
– Filter images on date_to and date_from
– Delay between images
– Duration of the transition
– Set shuffle mode on/off
– Pause playback
– Jump to the previous photo
– Set photos subdirectory
– Delete currently shown image
– Quit Pi3D
– Show date, location or filename

Pi3D has a parameter setting where you specify to show a number of recent images first following a reboot or a reselect (i.e. reshuffle after a filter command has been entered). Set this value (“default”) to zero in PictureFrame2020config.py to not show any new images first:
parse.add_argument("-n", "--recent_n", default=0, type=int, help="when shuffling the keep n most recent ones to play before the rest")

Pi3D has a folder notify feature whereby it knows when there are changes in the pictures folder. If a change is detected, the playlist is reshuffled. This process is called “reselect” in Pi3D speak. The check is performed every minute.

I recommend using systemd for launching scripts and have updated the section on auto starting Pi3D using systemd.

This may be because of your network file permission settings of SAMBA. Connect to the Raspberry Pi via Terminal and enter the following to delete the old directory:
sudo rm -r pi3d_demos_old

Open PictureFrame2020config.py and add your special characters or alphabet to the last line called CODEPOINTS. If you have characters like ” ‘ ” that have a special meaning in Python, then you have to prefix it with an “\”, so like “\'”.