What is this?

This is a fork of the original https://github.com/ilstam/FF-Multi-Converter.
The original is no longer developed.

This program is a simple graphical application which enables you to convert
between all popular formats, by utilizing and combining other programs.
To simply convert files, just click the Add button, add your file(s) and
select a format in the dropdown list, then click Convert.
For Videos, Music and Images, there are additional
options, for example flipping the image or selecting codecs, in the tabs.

Both Linux and Windows are supported and tested.
MacOS should work, but I don't have a Mac, so I can't test that.

Dependencies:

• python3
• pyqt5

On Linux, use your distributions package manager or pip to install these.
On Windows, use python.org to get python (the version
in the Microsoft Store is worse in some regards), then use
python -m pip install PyQt5 to get PyQt5.

Optional dependencies:

Without these some conversions will not work.

Python packages:

• trimesh (python package, used for 3D Models)
• gmsh (python package, requires trimesh, used for more 3D Models)

System Packages:

• ffmpeg (Audio and Video)
• imagemagick (Images)
• unoconv (Office formats)
• pandoc (Markdown)
• squashfs-tools, zip, unzip, binutils, tar, gzip, bzip2 (Compressed files)

On Linux, use your distributions Package manager to install the System
packages. On Windows, either get .exe files and place them on the $PATH,
use scoop, or (for everything but ffmpeg) install the
dependencies in WSL. You could also try other third-party package managers
or even the Microsoft Store, the program only needs the command
(e.g. unoconv) to be available on the CMD.

Installation

Install the ffconverter package from PyPI.
pip works on Windows and most Linux Distributions.

pip install ffconverter

Troubleshooting

If a optional dependency is installed after the program, you might
need to restart the program twice to ensure the cache gets overwritten.
If this does not work, delete the cache (Preferences -> Delete Cache).

Troubleshooting (ARM CPUs)

For converting 3D Models, the python packages trimesh and gmsh are
required. Sadly, gmsh is not available on PyPi for ARM devices. You can
compile it yourself by using the script below.
WARNING: You won't be able to uninstall gmsh using pip
and any scripts using it must first run sys.path.append('/usr/local/lib').
This will take a while. I only have a rapidly overheating phone
for testing ARM, so I am not that sure about compile time on other
devices, but expect upwards of 2 hours compile time.

git clone https://gitlab.onelab.info/gmsh/gmsh.git # 200+ MiB size
mkdir ./gmsh/build
cd ./gmsh/build

# You can probably replace `gcc` and `g++` with any other C/C++ Compiler.
CC=gcc CXX=g++ cmake -DENABLE_BUILD_DYNAMIC=1 ..
make
sudo make install

# optional, you no longer need the git repo
cd ../..
rm -r ./gmsh

Troubleshooting (Linux)

On some distros ("externally managed environments", like Arch and Debian),
pip will not work. In this case, you should use pipx.

sudo PIPX_HOME=/usr/local/pipx PIPX_BIN_DIR=/usr/local/bin pipx install --system-site-packages ffconverter
sudo ln -sf /usr/local/pipx/venvs/ffconverter/share/applications/ffconverter.desktop /usr/local/share/applications/ffconverter.desktop
sudo ln -sf /usr/local/pipx/venvs/ffconverter/share/pixmaps/ffconverter.png /usr/local/share/icons/ffconverter.png

The last two commands are needed to add the program to your installed
applications, but the ffconverter command should be available without them.

Troubleshooting (Windows)

If you want the program on your Desktop, create a new Shortcut
and enter this as the path:

"C:\Program Files\Python310\pythonw.exe" -c "from ffconverter import ffconverter as ff; ff.main()"

You may need to replace the path to pythonw.exe with the correct path
for your system. You can get this path by running this CMD Command:

where pythonw

Uninstall

Simply run:

pip uninstall ffconverter

Adjust this command if you used something other than pip to install.

Run without installing

You can launch the application without installing it
by running the launcher script:

git clone https://github.com/l-koehler/ff-converter
cd ./ff-converter
python3 ./launcher