Installing on macOS

The Cantera Matlab toolbox can be installed using a macOS-specific installer. The toolbox requires macOS version 10.15 (Catalina) or higher and a copy of Matlab built for Intel processors (which will run under Rosetta 2 on ARM-based processors).

To install the Cantera Python package, see the pip or conda instructions. The Python package is required if:

  • You need to convert legacy input files to YAML

  • You need to convert Chemkin-format input files to YAML

Download and run the Matlab Interface Installer

Download the Matlab Interface Installer package from GitHub: https://github.com/Cantera/cantera/releases/

When the file has downloaded, find it in Finder, hold Control and click the file. Choose "Open" from the resulting menu, and select "Open" in the security dialog that appears. Click "Continue" to proceed in the installer (noting that the installer may open in the background; you can find its icon on the Dock), agreeing to the Cantera license terms and the terms of the other open source software that we use.

By default, the installer will add some lines to the file $HOME/Documents/MATLAB/startup.m to enable loading the Cantera toolbox when Matlab starts. If you wish to disable this, click "Customize" and de-select the "Install startup.m script" option. Finally, clicking "Install" will install the interface to the $HOME/Applications/Cantera folder.

Test the installation

Open Matlab and enter the following code:

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