Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) did not run successfully. [ pip install -e . / Rust problem / conda access to PATH? ]

[DominikLyda]

Hi there,
I am having a problem installing nerfstudio. Every step of the installation (except tiny cuda - I have a problem with that too, but I will only be using gaussian splatting so I skipped that step) runs normally until I try pip install -e, then this problem appears:

...
Collecting pywinpty>=2.0.1 (from jupyter-server<3,>=2.4.0->jupyterlab>=3.3.4->nerfstudio==1.1.5)
  Using cached pywinpty-2.0.14.tar.gz (27 kB)
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... error
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error

  × Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) did not run successfully.
  │ exit code: 1
  ╰─> [6 lines of output]

      Cargo, the Rust package manager, is not installed or is not on PATH.
      This package requires Rust and Cargo to compile extensions. Install it through
      the system's package manager or via https://rustup.rs/

      Checking for Rust toolchain....
      [end of output]

  note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
error: metadata-generation-failed

× Encountered error while generating package metadata.
╰─> See above for output.

note: This is an issue with the package mentioned above, not pip.
hint: See above for details.

I have installed rust and have a path to it in my environment variables. When I start CMD, rust is working and this is how the output looks like for rustc --version:

D:\>rustc --version
rustc 1.84.1 (e71f9a9a9 2025-01-27)

If, on the other hand, conda environment is launched, the output will look like this:

(D:\Anaconda_Envs\nerfstudio) D:\Python Projects\nerfstudio>rustc --version
'rustc' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

I don't know what is causing it, but I have the impression that conda is overwriting or not taking into account the “Path” environment variable at all. Please help, and thank you in advance for every reply.