HowTo-Windows-Exe.txt

Instructions for building the Windows executable using PyInstaller 2.1:

Note: As of April 2016 PyInstaller 3.0 does not work properly

1. Make sure PyInstaller 2.1 is installed in your Python environment!

2. Open the file build_exe.py and adjust the directories if required.

3. Extremely important: Make sure that in main.py the line 
   sip.setapi('QVariant', 2)
   is commented out:
   #sip.setapi('QVariant', 2)

4. In your python installation locate the directory in which the
   mpl_toolkits reside. Put an empty file named __init__.py into it
   (e.g. c:\Progs32\WinPython-32bit-2.7.10.3\python-2.7.10\Lib\site-packages\mpl_toolkits\__init__.py)
   
5. Make sure that build_dir is not opened in any application or console, i.e.,
   it can be deleted by the script.
   
6. Run build_exe.py

7. The resulting exe should be found in build_dir.

8. If some modules are not found after launching the exe you have to manually 
   import them using the --hidden-import option in build_exe. This can be
   a time-consuming trial and error procedure.
   
9. Change the line 
   #sip.setapi('QVariant', 2)
   in main.py to
   sip.setapi('QVariant', 2)
   to ensure that the application runs properly under native Python.