Warning

This documentation is for an old version of Cantera. You can find docs for newer versions here.

Installing Cantera

Conda

Anaconda and Miniconda are Python distributions for which Cantera is available through the conda package manager. Both distributions are available for Linux, OS X, and Windows. The base Anaconda distribution includes a large number of Python packages that are widely used in scientific applications. Miniconda is a minimal distribution, where all of the packages available in Anaconda can be installed using the package manager. Note that installing Cantera using conda will only provide the Cantera Python module. If you want to use the other Cantera interfaces, see the OS-specific installation options below.

For more details on how to use conda, see the conda documentation.

Option 1: Create a new environment for Cantera

If you have just installed Anaconda or Miniconda, the following instructions will create a conda environment where you can use Cantera. For this example, the environment is named spam. From the command line, run:

conda create -n spam -c cantera cantera ipython matplotlib

This will create an environment with Cantera, IPython, Matplotlib, and all their dependencies installed. Although conda can install a large set of packages by default, it is also possible to install packages such as Cantera that are maintained independently. These additional channels from which packages may be obtained are specified by adding the -c option in the install or create commands. In this case, we want to install Cantera from the cantera channel, so we add -c cantera and to tell conda to look at the cantera channel in addition to the default channels.

If you are running Linux or OS X, you can then activate this environment by running:

source activate spam

If you are running Windows, the equivalent command is:

activate spam

Option 2: Install Cantera in an existing environment

First, activate your environment (assumed to be named baked_beans; if you’ve forgotten the name of the conda environment you wanted to use, the command conda env list can help). For Linux and OS X, this is done by running:

source activate baked_beans

For Windows users, the command is:

activate baked_beans

Then, install Cantera by running:

conda install -c cantera cantera

Option 3: Install the development version of Cantera

To install a recent development snapshot (i.e. an alpha or beta version) of Cantera in an existing environment, run:

conda install -c cantera/label/dev cantera

If you later want to revert back to the stable version, first remove and then reinstall Cantera:

conda remove cantera
conda install -c cantera cantera

Windows

Windows installers are provided for stable versions of Cantera. These installation instructions are for Cantera 2.3.0. Use these installers if you want to work with a copy of Python downloaded from Python.org. If you are using Anaconda / Miniconda, see the directions above.

  1. Choose your Python version and architecture

    • On Windows, Installers are provided for Python 2.7, Python 3.4, Python 3.5, and Python 3.6. Python 3.6 is recommended unless you need to use legacy code that does not work with Python 3. You can install multiple Cantera Python modules simultaneously.
    • Cantera supports both 32- and 64- bit Python installations.
    • You need choose the matching Cantera installer for your Python version and machine architecture.
    • The rest of these instructions will refer to your chosen version of Python as X.Y.
    • If you are using Matlab, you must use the same architecture for Cantera and Matlab. Matlab defaults to 64-bit if you are running a 64-bit operating system.

  2. Install Python

    • Go to python.org.
      • 64-bit: Download the most recent “Windows X86-64 MSI Installer” for Python X.Y.
      • 32-bit: Download the most recent “Windows x86 MSI Installer” for Python X.Y.
    • Run the installer. The default installation options should be fine.
    • Python is required in order to work with cti input files even if you are not using the Python interface to Cantera.
    • Cantera can also be used with alternative Python distributions such as the Enthought Canopy distribution. These distributions will generally be based on the 64-bit version of Python 2.7, and will include Numpy as well as many other packages useful for scientific users.

  3. Install the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015

    • If you are using Python 3.5 or Python 3.6 you can skip this step as this will have already been installed when you installed Python.

    • Go to the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Download Page.

      • 64-bit: Download vc_redist.x64.exe
      • 32-bit: Download vc_redist.x86.exe

    • Run the installer.

    • If this package is not installed, you will encounter the following error when importing the cantera module:

      ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found.

  4. Install Numpy and optional Python packages

    • Go to the Unofficial Windows Binaries for Python Extension Packages page.

    • Download the most recent release (distributed as a “wheel” archive) of the 1.x series for Python X.Y that matches your Python architecture. In the filename, the digits after “cp” indicate the Python version, e.g. numpy‑1.11.2+mkl‑cp35‑none‑win_amd64.whl is the installer for 64-bit Python 3.5. The Windows installers for Cantera 2.3.0 require Numpy 1.10 or newer.

    • From an administrative command prompt, install the downloaded wheel using pip, e.g.:

      c:\python35\scripts\pip.exe install "%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\numpy‑1.11.2+mkl‑cp35‑none‑win_amd64.whl"

    • If you plan on using Cantera from Python, you may also want to install IPython (an advanced interactive Python interpreter) and Matplotlib (a plotting library), which are also available from the above link (note that you may also need to download additional dependencies for each of these packages). Matplotlib is required to run some of the Python examples.

  5. Remove old versions of Cantera

    • Use The Windows “Add/Remove Programs” interface
    • Remove both the main Cantera package and the Python module.
    • The Python module will be listed as “Python X.Y Cantera …”

  6. Install Cantera

    • Go to the Cantera Releases page.
      • 64-bit: Download Cantera-2.3.0-x64.msi and Cantera-Python-2.3.0-x64-pyX.Y.msi.
      • 32-bit: Download Cantera-2.3.0-x86.msi and Cantera-Python-2.3.0-x86-pyX.Y.msi.
    • If you are only using the Python module, you do not need to download and install the base package.
    • Run the installer(s).

  7. Configure Matlab (optional)

    • Set the environment variable PYTHON_CMD
      • From the Start menu (Windows 7) or the Start screen (Windows 8) type “edit environment” and select “Edit environment variables for your account”.
      • Add a New variable with PYTHON_CMD as the name and the full path to the Python executable (e.g. C:\python35\python.exe) as the value.
      • Setting PYTHON_CMD is not necessary if the path to python.exe is in your PATH (which can be set from the same configuration dialog).
    • Launch Matlab
    • Go to File->Set Path…
    • Select Add with Subfolders
    • Browse to the folder C:\Program Files\Cantera\matlab\toolbox
    • Select Save, then Close.

  8. Test the installation

    • Python:

      import cantera
gas = cantera.Solution('gri30.cti')
h2o = cantera.PureFluid('liquidvapor.cti', 'water')

    • Matlab:

      gas = IdealGasMix('gri30.cti')
h2o = Solution('liquidvapor.cti','water')

Mac OS X

Cantera can be installed on OS X using either Homebrew or Anaconda / Miniconda. If you are using Anaconda / Miniconda, see the directions above. With Homebrew, the current stable, or development version of Cantera can be installed, and both the Python 2.7 and Python 3.x modules are available, as well as the Matlab toolbox.

Homebrew

These instructions have been tested on Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) with Xcode 5.1 and Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) with Xcode 6.1. If you’ve used Homebrew before, you can skip any steps which have already been completed.

  1. Install Xcode and Homebrew

    • Install Xcode from the App Store

    • From a Terminal, run:

      sudo xcode-select --install
sudo xcodebuild -license

      and agree to the Xcode license agreement.

    • Install Homebrew by running the following command in a Terminal:

      ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

  2. Set up the compilation environment

    • Run the following commands:

      brew tap homebrew/science
brew update
brew install python scons

    • Verify that your path is set up to use Homebrew’s version of Python by running:

      which python

      If this command does not print /usr/local/bin/python, add the following to ~/.bash_profile (creating this file if it doesn’t already exist; you can use the command line editor nano to edit this file):

      export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH

      and then run:

      source ~/.bash_profile

    • Install Python packages required to compile Cantera by running:

      pip install numpy

      Note that these packages are required even if you do not plan on using the Cantera Python 2 module.

    • If you plan on using Cantera from Python, you may also want to install IPython (an advanced interactive Python interpreter) and Matplotlib (a plotting library). Matplotlib is required to run some of the Python examples:

      pip install ipython matplotlib

    • If you want to build the Cantera Python 3 module, run:

      brew install python3
pip3 install numpy cython

      and, optionally:

      pip3 install ipython matplotlib

  3. Compile and install Cantera

    • To compile and install Cantera using the default configuration, run:

      brew install cantera

    • The following options are supported:

      --HEAD

      Installs the current development version of Cantera.

      --with-python3

      Install the Python 3 module.

      --with-matlab=/Applications/MATLAB_R2014a.app/

      Installs the Matlab toolbox (with the path modified to match your installed Matlab version)

      --without-sundials

      Do not use an external SUNDIALS version to build Cantera. This option is set automatically when using Matlab.

      --without-test

      NOT RECOMMENDED! Disable automatic testing of Cantera during the installation process.

    • These options are specified as additional arguments to the brew install command, e.g.:

      brew install cantera --HEAD --with-python3

    • If you are installing the Matlab toolbox, the recommended command is:

      brew install cantera --with-matlab=/Applications/MATLAB_R2014a.app/

    • If something goes wrong with the Homebrew install, re-run the command with the -v flag to get more verbose output that may help identify the source of the problem:

      brew install -v cantera

    • If Homebrew claims that it can’t find a formula named cantera, you may be able to fix it by running the commands:

      brew doctor
brew tap --repair

  4. Test Cantera Installation (Python)

    • The Python examples will be installed in:

      /usr/local/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages/cantera/examples/

      where X.Y is your Python version, e.g. 2.7.

    • You may find it convenient to copy the examples to your Desktop:

      cp -r /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cantera/examples ~/Desktop/cantera_examples

    • To run an example:

      cd cantera_examples/reactors
python reactor1.py

  5. Test Cantera Installation (Matlab)

    • The Matlab toolbox, if enabled, will be installed in:

      /usr/local/lib/cantera/matlab

    • To use the Cantera Matlab toolbox, run the following commands in Matlab (each time you start Matlab), or add them to a startup.m file located in /Users/$USER/Documents/MATLAB, where $USER is your username:

      addpath(genpath('/usr/local/lib/cantera/matlab'))
setenv('PYTHON_CMD', '/usr/local/bin/python')

    • The Matlab examples will be installed in:

      /usr/local/share/cantera/samples/matlab

    • You may find it convenient to copy the examples to your user directory:

      cp -r /usr/local/share/cantera/samples/matlab ~/Documents/MATLAB/cantera_examples

Ubuntu

Ubuntu packages are provided for recent versions of Ubuntu using a Personal Package Archive (PPA). As of Cantera 2.3.0, packages are available for Ubuntu Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) and Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak). To see which Ubuntu releases and Cantera versions are currently available, visit https://launchpad.net/~speth/+archive/ubuntu/cantera

The available packages are:

  • cantera-python - The Cantera Python module for Python 2.
  • cantera-python3 - The Cantera Python module for Python 3.
  • cantera-dev - Libraries and header files for compiling your own C++ and Fortran 90 programs that use Cantera.

To add the Cantera PPA:

sudo aptitude install python-software-properties
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:speth/cantera
sudo aptitude update

To install all of the Cantera packages:

sudo aptitude install cantera-python cantera-python3 cantera-dev

or install whichever subset you need by adjusting the above command.

If you plan on using Cantera from Python, you may also want to install IPython (an advanced interactive Python interpreter) and Matplotlib (a plotting library), which are also available from the above link. Matplotlib is required to run some of the Python examples. For Python 2, these packages can be installed with:

pip2 install ipython matplotlib

And for Python 3, these packages can be installed with:

pip3 install ipython matplotlib

You may need to install pip first; instructions can be found on the pip installation instructions. You may need to have superuser access to install packages into the system directories. Alternatively, you can add --user after pip install but before the package names to install into your local user directory. An alternative method is to use the Ubuntu repositories, but these tend to be very out of date. For Python 2, the command is:

sudo aptitude install ipython python-matplotlib

And for Python 3, these packages can be installed with:

sudo aptitude install ipython3 python3-matplotlib