Installation

Installation

pyfdstools needs Python 3.8 or newer.

From PyPI

python -m pip install pyfdstools

From source

git clone https://github.com/johodges/pyfdstools
python -m pip install ./pyfdstools

Use an editable install if you intend to modify the code or track the repository with git pull:

git clone https://github.com/johodges/pyfdstools
python -m pip install -e ./pyfdstools

In a virtual environment

Recommended, so that pyfdstools and its dependencies stay separate from your system Python.

python -m venv /path/to/myenv
source /path/to/myenv/bin/activate        # Linux and macOS
/path/to/myenv/Scripts/activate           # Windows
python -m pip install pyfdstools

Dependencies

The core package needs only four packages, all of which pip installs for you:

Package	Minimum	Used for
numpy	1.17	every array operation
scipy	1.3.1	interpolation between meshes, convex hulls
matplotlib	3.0	plotting and colormaps
pandas	0.25	csv output as data frames

Everything documented in this wiki works with just those, including reading every FDS binary output format.

Optional extras

Two submodules wrap larger third party libraries. They are loaded on demand, so importing pyfdstools works whether or not they are installed; the ImportError only appears when you reach for a name they provide, and it names the extra to install.

Extra	Installs	Enables
paraview	pyevtk, numpy-stl	Exporting to ParaView, obstToStl
vtk	vtk	reading FDS VTKHDF output (pyfdstools.vtkhdf_plugin)
all	both of the above
test	pytest	running the test suite

python -m pip install "pyfdstools[paraview]"
python -m pip install "pyfdstools[all]"

If you install pyfdstools and later find you want ParaView export, installing the extra is enough; nothing in your existing scripts has to change.

Verifying the installation

python -c "import pyfdstools as fds; print(fds.__version__)"

Then run the bundled examples, which read the FDS cases shipped inside the package and write their output to <install location>/pyfdstools/examples/generated:

python -c "import pyfdstools as fds; fds.runExamples()"

runExamples returns a list of (script, returncode, stdout, stderr) tuples, and takes raiseOnError=True if you want a failure to raise rather than print.

Blender

An older workflow drove Blender from pyfdstools; see pyfdstools/blender_examples.py and the commented-out section of the README. It requires Blender's bundled Python to be replaced with an environment that has pyfdstools installed, and is not currently tested.