Installation

COMPAS_SLICER can be easily installed on multiple platforms.

Basic installation steps

Install compas slicer

The recommended way to install compas_slicer is with conda. For example, create an environment named my-project (or replace with your own environment name) and install as follows:

conda config --add channels conda-forge
conda create -n my-project compas_slicer
conda activate my-project

  • Install COMPAS CGAL

conda install -c conda-forge compas_cgal

  • Install Grasshopper components

The Grasshopper components are automatically installed with the compas_rhino installation, e.g.:

conda activate my-project
python -m compas_rhino.install -v 7.0

  • Test if the library works

Activate your environment and run the following command:

conda activate my-project
python -m compas_slicer

  • Install from local folder

If you would like to install the latest code from github, or to make modifications on the code and have the updated version run in your environment, then you can install compas_slicer from a local folder in your computer. To do that, after following the steps described above clone the compas_slicer repository using the command

git clone https://github.com/compas-dev/compas_slicer.git

Navigate to the compas_slicer folder and after you activate the desired environment, install compas_slicer from the local copy with the following command:

Enjoy!

Contributions

Before contributing code:

  • Install development dependencies:

  • Make sure all tests pass:

  • Make sure you pass flake8 tests. (hint: This is the most annoying part of the process)

  • Add your code in the appropriate folder. If you are not sure where to put it, contact [@ioannaMitropoulou](https://github.com/ioannaMitropoulou).

  • Add an example on the examples folder that uses the new functionality. Run the example and make sure it works smoothly.

  • Add your name to the authors in README.md.

  • Create a pull request for the master branch, where you explain in detail what you fixed. When you create a pull request, there is an automatic action that runs the tests for your code again on the server.

Make sure the pull request passes the automatic tests as well. If not, then inspect the result, find what went wrong, fix it, and push again the result on your branch. The action will run again automatically on the open pull request.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter a problem that is not described here, please file an issue using the Issue Tracker.

  • Grasshopper components not working

If despite completing all the compas_slicer installation steps, the compas_slicer grasshopper components still do not work, then you can fix this by manually adding the correct folder to your paths in Rhino. In Rhino, type “EditPythonScript”, go to Tools > Options > Add to search path and add the following folder: <path>/compas_slicer/src/grasshopper_visualization’

  • Installing Planarity

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'Cython'

The installation process with pip can fail while installing planarity because Cython is not installed. In that case, install cython using pip (or conda) and then run the installation of COMPAS_SLICER again.

pip install cython --install-option="--no-cython-compile"

  • Microsoft Visual C++ Build Tools

error: Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 or greater is required. Get it with "Microsoft C++ Build Tools": https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/visual-cpp-build-tools/

The installation with pip can fail because “Microsoft Visual C++ Build Tools are missing”. To install the Microsoft Visual C++ Build Tools choose one of the options provided here: https://www.scivision.dev/python-windows-visual-c-14-required/ and just follow the instructions. Then run the pip installation commands again.

  • Numpy error

RuntimeError: The current Numpy installation ('C:\\Users\\<username>\\.conda\\envs\\compas_slicer\\lib\\site-packages\\numpy\\__init__.py') fails to pass a sanity check due to a bug in the windows runtime. See this issue for more information: https://tinyurl.com/y3dm3h86

A conflict between Numpy and Python can appear, in order to fix this you need to downgrade Numpy to 1.19.3 (from 1.19.4). Make sure you are in the correct environment and type:

pip install numpy==1.19.3

  • Fractions error

ImportError: cannot import name 'gcd' from 'fractions' (C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\envs\compas_slicer\lib\fractions.py)

This issue can be solved, as explained here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66174862/import-error-cant-import-name-gcd-from-fractions by typing the following command (make sure you are in the correct environment)

conda install -c conda-forge networkx=2.5