Download models on demand

[siemdejong]

Would it be possible to download weights on-demand? Currently, to use this api with QuPath, users would have to download all the weights even though they are only interested in using SAM2_s for example. Some models are quite heavy and installation can take quite some time. Unnecessary weights take up more space than necessary.

I could envision users clicking the model they are interested in when using the qupath extension, and then samapi downloads only the requested weights once. The QuPath extension could show a progressbar indicating the download.

[ksugar]

Hi @siemdejong, thank you for the suggestion.
That's a great idea. The download mechanism already exists, allowing on-demand retrieval of the default weights.
I will consider disabling the initial auto-download.

[siemdejong]

What are your considerations? What would be required to include on-demand download? I could work on this.