Installation#

User installation#

You can run VISOR with Python 3.11 through Python 3.14 on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Create and activate a virtual environment#

To avoid conflicts with other Python packages, create and activate a virtual environment before you install VISOR.

Create a virtual environment:
```
python -m venv .venv
```
Activate the virtual environment for your operating system.

On Windows, run this command:
```
.venv\Scripts\activate
```
On Linux and macOS, run this command:
```
source .venv/bin/activate
```

Install VISOR#

In the virtual environment, install VISOR with all optional dependencies:

python -m pip install ansys-visor-viewer

Developer installation#

Check that the following prerequisites are installed:
- Poetry
- Node.js & npm

Clone the VISOR repository:

git clone https://github.com/ansys/Visual-Interactive-Simulation-Object-Renderer/.git
cd visor

Create a virtual environment:
```
python -m venv .venv
```
Activate the virtual environment for your operating system.

On Windows, run this command:
```
.venv\Scripts\activate
```
On Linux and macOS, run this command:
```
source .venv/bin/activate
```

Install and build VISOR in editable mode within the virtual environment:

# Install VISOR Python dependencies and the setup script
poetry install --with setup

# Run the setup script to copy WASM modules to the correct location
visor-setup

# Build the frontend
cd src\ansys\visor\visor-client
npm install
npm run build
cd ..\..\..\.. # Go back to the root of the VISOR repository

# Install Dash component
cd src\ansys\visor\dash
npm install
npm run build
cd ..\..\..\.. # Go back to the root of the VISOR repository

Verify your installation by importing the module:
```
>>> from ansys.visor.viewer import Visor
```