Now that our thirdparty folder is available to Maya, let's add some modules to it. First we'll see how to find packages on the Python Package Index. Then we will add source distributions and binary distributions to the directory. We will also go over some caveats using third-party modules in Maya on Windows systems. Finally, we will briefly look at pip, Python's package management tool.
The Python Package Index (PyPI) at http://pypi.python.org contains a nearly comprehensive list of community-developed Python modules that you can browse, install, and use however you need. PyPI is not just important for hosting files but for providing a common interface for users and tools to pull down information and packages, as we'll see later.
Using PyPI's website should be self-explanatory. You can search for packages and download distributions. We will install a distribution in the next section.