Volmdlr: the absolute basics for beginners#
Welcome to the absolute beginner’s guide to volmdlr! If you have comments or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
Welcome to volmdlr!#
The volmdlr library is an open-source Python library primarily developed by Dessia Technologies, aimed at providing 3D modeling capabilities based on Boundary Representation (B-Rep) purely in Python. The library is designed to be easy to use, efficient, and customizable.
Boundary Representation is a technique used in computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) systems to represent the geometry of a solid object as a collection of surfaces and curves. B-Rep is widely used in CAD and CAM due to its ability to accurately represent complex shapes and to provide a rich set of operations for manipulating and analyzing these shapes.
Installing volmdlr through pip (Windows and Linux users)#
This package requires Python 3.9 or above. Please follow the instructions below to install the package. Depending on your needs, you can choose between two types of installation.
To install the latest version of the package you need to run the following command:
pip install volmdlr
# or
pip3 install volmdlr
To install a specific version of the package you would issue the following command:
pip install volmdlr==0.1.0
# or
pip3 install volmdlr==0.1.0
Developer installation#
First, clone the package. Then, enter the newly created volmdlr repository. Finally, develop the setup.py file, and you are good to go !
git clone https://github.com/Dessia-tech/volmdlr.git
cd volmdlr
python3 setup.py develop --user
# or whatever version you are using :
python3.x setup.py develop --user
Requirements#
The installation of volmdlr requires the installation of other packages listed in the file setup.py and in the table below. These libraries will be automatically installed when you install volmdlr.
Dependency |
Minimum Version |
Usage |
|---|---|---|
packaging |
latest |
computation |
dessia_common |
>=0.10.0 |
computation |
Cython |
latest |
computation |
numpy |
latest |
computation |
matplotlib |
latest |
display |
scipy |
latest |
computation |
geomdl |
latest |
computation |
networkx |
latest |
computation |
triangle |
latest |
computation |
plot_data |
>=0.10.9 |
display |
kaitaistruct |
latest |
computation |
binaryornot |
latest |
computation |
sympy |
latest |
computation |
trimesh |
latest |
computation |
rtree |
latest |
computation |
gmsh |
latest |
computation |
Troubleshooting#
If the installation is successful but your IDE don’t recognize the package#
In this case you may have several versions of Python installed on your computer. Make sure the pip command points to the right Python version, or that you have selected the desired Python version in your IDE. You can force the installation of the package on a given Python version by executing this command:
python -m pip install volmdlr
You have to specify the Python version you are working with by replacing python by the Python of your choice. For example, python3, python3.8, python3.9, etc.