Hey everyone,
I recently installed the Needle addon on Blender 4.4.3, but I’m running into some serious issues. The addon doesn’t seem to load properly — the UI gets stuck or becomes super laggy, and Blender becomes almost unusable. I’ve checked the console, but no error messages show up at all.
I also tested it on previous versions of Blender (4.3, 4.2, 4.0, and even 3.6), but I’m experiencing the same behavior every time. It just slows everything down without giving any feedback or errors.
I’ve tried reinstalling both the addon and Blender, but the issue persists. Has anyone else experienced this? Any tips on how to fix or troubleshoot it?
Hi Contrast3d, thanks for reaching out. I’m sorry to hear that you’re running into performance issues with the Needle addon in Blender (versions 4.4.3 and earlier). The symptoms you describe—stuck UI, heavy lag, and no error messages in the console—are not typical, and they might indicate a compatibility or configuration issue.
Here are a few steps to troubleshoot:
• First, make sure you’re running the latest version of the addon. Updates often include fixes for performance or compatibility issues. As noted in the documentation, an update notification appears in the Needle Project panel (see (docs/index.html)).
• Check that your system drivers (especially graphics drivers) and Blender installation are up to date. Sometimes subtle GPU driver issues can trigger performance slowdowns.
• Run Blender in factory settings to rule out interference from other addons or custom UI configurations. If possible, test on a clean installation.
• Open the Needle-specific logs via Blender’s Help > Needle/Logs menu. Even if the console isn’t showing errors, these logs might provide hints. If you can share the log output, it would help pinpoint the issue.
• If the problem continues on a clean install and with the latest addon version, please consider filing a detailed bug report using Blender’s integrated bug reporter (available in the Needle panel). Include your system specs, Blender version, and a minimal reproducible example if possible. This will help the Needle team diagnose the issue faster (see (docs/faq.html)).
Let me know if any of these steps provide more insight or if you need further assistance.
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Hello
Which OS are you on?
Can you open the log file via the menu item at Help/Needle in blender?
Could you try closing Blender
then run npx needle-cloud@version-1 start-server in your terminal/commandline (confirm with yes when prompted to install the cli app)
And then start Blender again?
I’m on Windows 11.
I opened the Needle logs via Help > Needle > Logs, and here’s the content I got:
2025-06-20 15:14:34:
Blender version: 4.4.3
OS: win32
Python: 3.11.11 (main, Feb 11 2025, 07:53:58) [MSC v.1929 64 bit (AMD64)]
PATH: [‘C:\Python313\Scripts\’, ‘C:\Python313\’, ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32’, ‘C:\WINDOWS’, ‘C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem’, ‘C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\’, ‘C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH\’, ‘C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVIDIA App\NvDLISR’, ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common’, ‘C:\Program Files\AutoFirma\AutoFirma’, ‘C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin’, ‘C:\Program Files\nodejs\’, ‘C:\Users\kalev\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps’, ‘C:\Users\kalev\AppData\Roaming\npm’]
2025-06-20 15:14:34: Request node version with command “node -v” (at tryGetNodeVersion)
2025-06-20 15:14:35: Can not run tool helper command, package does not exist: C:\Users\kalev\AppData\Local\Temp\Needle\Blender\WebProject/node_modules/@needle-tools/helper (at runToolHelperCommand)
I also tried closing Blender and running this command in the terminal as you suggested:
PS C:\Users\kalev> npx needle-cloud@version-1 start-server
npm ERR! code ENOENT
npm ERR! syscall lstat
npm ERR! path C:\Users\kalev\AppData\Roaming\npm
npm ERR! errno -4058
npm ERR! enoent ENOENT: no such file or directory, lstat ‘C:\Users\kalev\AppData\Roaming\npm’
npm ERR! enoent This is related to npm not being able to find a file.
npm ERR! enoent
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in: C:\Users\kalev\AppData\Local\npm-cache_logs\2025-06-20T13_19_07_894Z-debug-0.log
PS C:\Users\kalev>
Unfortunately, the addon is still laggy and unresponsive even after that.
Hi, thanks thats helpful. Have you installed nodejs? If not could you do that and then retry? Thank you.
https://engine.needle.tools/docs/getting-started/#other-useful-tools
Hello, did you see my previous message? Would be helpful to know if that fixes the issue for you. I tried to reproduce on osx but it didnt get the error you reported (by uninstalling nodejs)
Sorry for late response, I tried, but still not working. Needle log with node.js:
2025-06-23 19:07:18:
Blender version: 4.4.3
OS: win32
Python: 3.11.11 (main, Feb 11 2025, 07:53:58) [MSC v.1929 64 bit (AMD64)]
PATH: [‘C:\Python313\Scripts\’, ‘C:\Python313\’, ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32’, ‘C:\WINDOWS’, ‘C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem’, ‘C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\’, ‘C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH\’, ‘C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVIDIA App\NvDLISR’, ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common’, ‘C:\Program Files\AutoFirma\AutoFirma’, ‘C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin’, ‘C:\Program Files\nodejs\’, ‘C:\Users\kalev\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps’, ‘C:\Users\kalev\AppData\Roaming\npm’]
2025-06-23 19:07:19: Request node version with command “node -v” (at tryGetNodeVersion)
2025-06-23 19:07:20: Can not run tool helper command, package does not exist: C:\Users\kalev\AppData\Local\Temp\Needle\Blender\WebProject/node_modules/@needle-tools/helper (at runToolHelperCommand)
Thanks for testing again. Could you try downloading and enabling this version: http://engine.needle.tools/downloads/blender/ea/blender-plugin-0.60.1.zip
And let me know if that makes any difference? If not please try to start blender from the commandline to check if there are any errors (the log file you sent looks fine)
it works!!
I’d like to understand why the new versions aren’t working. Anyway, thank you so much!
Great, thanks for testing.
What do you mean by “the new versions aren’t working” ? Do you mean blender or addon versions?
