In this page:

1. Install BlueSky from source
2. Install Python 3 (3.7 or higher)
3. Install BlueSky as a pip package
4. Troubleshooting

If you new to Python, please first go to Install Python 3 section first.

To install BlueSky from source, you can either clone the git repository, or download a zip bundle:

1. Clone the BlueSky source repository:

    git clone https://github.com/TUDelft-CNS-ATM/bluesky.git
   

2. Download a zip file of the main branch:

   https://github.com/TUDelft-CNS-ATM/bluesky/archive/master.zip

To install BlueSky's dependencies, run the following from the BlueSky root folder:

pip install -r requirements-gui.txt

you can run BlueSky as follows, in the BlueSky root folder type:

python3 BlueSky.py

You need Python 3.7 or preferably a more recent version of Python.

There are three installation options for python (two for windows):

• Manual installation of python from Python.org, recommended for Windows and macOS. Select a recent version of Python. If the newest release is very fresh you might want to select the one before that, as it sometimes takes a while for all packages to be available through pip.
• Installation using the native package manager of the OS (Linux) or a 3rd-party package manager (macOS: macPorts, homebrew)
• Installation of a python application bundle such as Anaconda or Miniconda (all platforms) is also possible, but it can sometimes happen that packages installed with e.g. conda have issues (with BlueSky).

Install Python from Python.org. In the Windows installer the PATH to be added. Python will also install the python package manager pip. To install the modules use the pip install 'modulename' in a Console with sufficient rights (administrator). Then open a Console (or in Windows Run a Command Prompt as Administrator) and run the following command:

pip install -r requirements-gui.txt

In Microsoft Windows you can also right-click and select "Run as Administrator" for the supplied file:

setup-python.bat

It is not recommended to use the default Python distribution that comes with the Mac OS for BlueSky.

The preferred installation method for Python on macOS is to install Python from Python.org. Python will also install the python package manager pip. To install the modules use the pip install command in the terminal. Go to the folder where you installed BlueSky, and run the following:

pip install -r requirements-gui.txt

You can also use the Anaconda or Miniconda Python distribution (see below), or install Python using macports or homebrew.

Each Linux distribution has its own package management software. You can use it to install the required dependencies for BlueSky. Make sure to have all the dependency libraries installed.

Another way to start using the BlueSky source code is to install a Python distribution such as Anaconda or Miniconda. Make sure the Python 3 version of these distributions is installed. Miniconda is a stripped-down version of the Anaconda, where more libraries need to be installed manually.

After installation, open Anaconda Prompt (or shell console) and run following command to install additional libraries:

 pip install pyopengl pygame pyqtwebengine

After installation, open the Prompt (or shell console) and run following commands to install additional libraries:

conda install pyqt numpy scipy matplotlib pandas pyopengl rtree
pip install msgpack pyzmq pygame pyqtwebengine zmq

If you are not (yet) planning to edit the BlueSky source files, the easiest way to get BlueSky is installing it from PyPI. In a terminal / command prompt, execute the following command:

pip install bluesky-simulator[full]

If you are on macOS or Linux, and use a zsh terminal, you have to put quotes around the package name:

pip install "bluesky-simulator[full]"

You can now run BlueSky with one of the following two commands in the terminal/command line:

bluesky

or

python3 -m bluesky

Note that [full] indicates that all BlueSky gui dependencies should be installed. Other installation options are:

• [qt5] Install BlueSky with Qt5 dependencies
• [qt6] Install BlueSky with Qt6 dependencies
• [console] Install BlueSky with (only) textual console dependencies
• [headless] Don't install any gui dependencies

This is a specific error with Anaconda on some Linux. Running BlueSky gives you an error saying that the 'xcb' plugin for OpenGL could not be found. You can fix this by adding the following to your console profile file (either ~/.bashrc, ~/.profile, or ~/.bash_profile):

export QT_PLUGIN_PATH=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/plugins/platforms/

Possibly, your conda files also need updating, which can be performed by following these instructions.