Import Error: DLL load failed while importing trace: module not found

[GernotSchreider]

Environment:

Windows 11 Pro, vers 25H2 (Build 26200.7623)
Python 3.12.10 and 3.13.10
Cartopy 0.24.1 and 0.25.0 (both fail)
Installed via pip (PyPI wheels) or conda
VSCode 1.108.1

I tried various install approaches via pip and miniconda but to no avail
Fresh reinstalls don't resolve the issue
My suspicion was that the dlls are not properly installed or are somehow incompatible, so I worked on installing the dlls.
I even tried the approach as per https://stackoverflow.com/questions/70177062/cartopy-not-able-to-identify-geos-for-proj-install-on-windows
But even the dlls from OSGeo4W did not help.

Key findings:
All required DLLs (geos.dll, geos_c.dll, proj_9.dll, vcruntime140.dll, etc.) are present in cartopy.libs
The DLLs can be loaded individually via ctypes.
Replacing with OSGeo4W DLLs doesn't help
The trace.cp312-win_amd64.pyd extension exists but fails to load

Bottom line : I have no idea how to resolve this

Please advise how to fix.

Thanks

[GernotSchreider]

Update:
even placing the dlls in cartopy directoy does not help nor renaming trace.cp312-win_amd64.pyd to trace.pyd does help

Is there anything obvious that I'm missing here?

[rcomer]

The StackOverflow question predates Cartopy publishing its own wheels, and these days it should "just work" with either pip or conda. It looks like you are installing via vscode. If you instead work at the command line, do you still get the problem with a fresh environment?

[rcomer]

Also, do you have the vscode Python Environments extension installed? The reviews on that say it breaks all sorts of things.

[GernotSchreider]

I tried both pip and conda with uninstall and fresh re-installs, nthing worked. Yes, I do have Python Environment extension in VSCode installed.
Actually meanwhile I used another machine on which I also have VSCode running but with Python 3.11 and cartopy 0.25.0 installed and it works. In this other installation I also have Python Environment installed, so I do not think this is a problem.
It would be tremendously helpful to have a kind of a reference installation for verifying that all required files are where they should be and contain all needed files.
regarding authorizations I made sure that OS PATH has all the directories it should have but maybe I miss something here so again some clear documentation, which environment variables are essential would help a lot.
I know that there are many components involved and the missing piece could be anywhere.
I would appreciate any specific checks I could do to isolate the culprit.

Thanks

[nataliepper]

I'm getting the same error message, although in my case the installation doesn't seem to have created a cartopy.libs directory with DLLs at all.

Windows 11
Python 3.12.3
Cartopy 0.25.0
Installed via pip.
No VSCode involved.

Any help is appreciated.