How to use the PIP library in Blender I just got started with Blender and my main interest is to use code to generate 3D images. I like what I see, but I do not like the fact that I cannot just use any library I want. 

Usually, when using other python distributions ( Conda for example) I would use the following trick in the terminal to install everything I need. 

import pip

def install(package):
    pip.main(['install', package])

install('requests') 
install('numpy') 


This however, gives a huge error in blender. 

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "&lt;blender_console&gt;", line 1, in &lt;module&gt;
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/__init__.py", line 13, in &lt;module&gt;
  from pip.commands import commands, get_summaries, get_similar_commands
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/commands/__init__.py", line 7, in &lt;module&gt;
  from pip.commands.freeze import FreezeCommand
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/commands/freeze.py", line 6, in &lt;module&gt;
  from pip.req import InstallRequirement
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/req/__init__.py", line 2, in &lt;module&gt;
  from .req_install import InstallRequirement
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/req/req_install.py", line 11, in &lt;module&gt;
  import pip.wheel
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/wheel.py", line 22, in &lt;module&gt;
  from pip import pep425tags
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/pep425tags.py", line 131, in &lt;module&gt;
  supported_tags = get_supported()
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/pep425tags.py", line 82, in get_supported
  arch = get_platform()
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/pep425tags.py", line 38, in get_platform
  return distutils.util.get_platform().replace('.', '_').replace('-', '_')
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/distutils/util.py", line 103, in get_platform
  distutils.sysconfig.get_config_vars(),
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/distutils/sysconfig.py", line 511, in get_config_vars
  func()
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/distutils/sysconfig.py", line 443, in _init_posix
  raise DistutilsPlatformError(my_msg)
  distutils.errors.DistutilsPlatformError: invalid Python installation: unable to open /Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/config-3.4m/Makefile (No such file or directory)


Can I use pip with blender using this trick? When looking at the error I get the idea that indeed does exist and that I can access it within blender. It is however  also telling me that it doesn't use the right python version. 

I am using a mac, but preferably we would have a solution here that works for all systems. 

EDIT

I still have not gotten pip to work in Blender but as of Blender 2.70 this is not as necessary anymore because Blender now includes the Numpy library (thanks community!)
What you can do is just delete the python folder from the Blender directory (or move it to have a backup) and Blender will look for python preinstalled on the system. Note that the version must match (current Blender python version is 3.5.0, it works with 3.5.1 though) and environment variables need to be set (at least under Windows).

Info from here.