Managing plugins using the AddOn Manager¶

Each functionality in the Builder is a plugin. A plugin is a small or large piece of Python code that defines its functionality.

An add-on is a collection of plugins; some contain just one, to define a single button/filter etc, while others contain a whole set of plugins which are related to each other.

Using the AddOn Manager (Help‣AddOn Manager) you can automatically update installed add-ons, or install new ones to extend the functionality of QuantumATK, either by downloading them from the QuantumWise add-on server, or installing them from .zip files or a folder by clicking Install zip/folder. Normally you can just update the add-ons by clicking the “Update” or “Update All” buttons in the AddOn Manager in QuantumATK. If, however, you are behind a firewall that prevents QuantumATK from accessing the add-on server directly, you can instead download the add-on and install it manually, following the steps outlined below in Fig. 20.

Fig. 20 The add-on can be manually installed by clicking the buttom install zip/folder in the AddOn Manager in QuantumATK. Restart QuantumATK to activate the new add-on.

Add-ons are installed in quantumatk/lib/site-packages/AddOns on Windows, quantumatk/lib/python2.7/site-packages/AddOns on Linux, and quantumatk/.../Contents/Resources/Frameworks/Python.framework/ Versions/2.7/lib.packages/AddOns for Mac, relative to the QuantumATK installation directory. There you can inspect the source code of almost all plugins provided with QuantumATK, and use them for inspiration to create your own!