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

The current version of Pi3D as of March 2021 is 2.43, and of PictureFrame it is 2021.03.20. The date at the end of PictureFrame makes it easy to know when it was last updated.

In Terminal enter “picframe -v“. This will show you the version numbers for all modules.

In Terminal on a Pi 4 enter: “sudo pip3 install picframe --upgrade“.
On a Pi 3 it is “pip3 install picframe --upgrade“.
Then rename “configuration.yaml” to “configuration_old.yaml” and run “picframe -i .“. Finally, manually copy over your settings from the old config file to the new one.

The Pi3D documentation is: https://pi3d.github.io/html/ReadMe.html#acknowledgements
The Pi3D Github page is: https://github.com/pi3d/pi3d_demos
The PictureFrame Github page is: https://github.com/helgeerbe/picframe
The Python Package Index page is: https://pypi.org/project/picframe/

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 PictureFrame 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 to zero in configuration.yaml in the model section to not show any new images first:
recent_n: 0 # default=7 (days), when shuffling file change date more recent than this number of days play before the rest

Pi3D has a database 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.

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

Open configuration.yaml and add your special characters or alphabet to the 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 “\'”.

Pi3D is a Python module that aims to greatly simplify writing 3D in Python whilst giving access to the power of the Raspberry Pi GPU. It enables both 3D and 2D rendering and aims to provide a host of exciting commands to load in textured/animated models, create fractal landscapes, shaders, and much more.
PictureFrame is a Raspberry Pi image viewer that builds on the power of Pi3D. Most of the time when I refer to “Pi3D”, “PictureFrame”, or “Pi3D PictureFrame” I mean the same thing.