Installation

The recommended version of Python to run this package is version 3.11 (3.10 or higher are supported), when it provides the smoothest plotting. It is also the version used for development.

There are more ways to install the Python package. For regular use we recommend installation from PyPI using pip, which will provide the latest released version. For development, you can install from source by cloning the repository.

Using pip:

pip install rational-linkages

or with optional dependencies:

pip install "rational-linkages[opt,cad]"

for installing also opt (optional) dependencies (ipython - inline plotting, scipy - optimization problems solving, matplotlib - alternative engine for 3D plotting) and cad dependencies (exudyn - multibody simulations, ngsolve - work with meshes in exudyn, build123d - generating STEP files of linkages, trimesh + manifold3d - generating STL files).

On Linux systems, to run GUI interactive plotting, some additional libraries are required for plotting with PyQt6. Using Ubuntu, it can be installed as follows:

sudo apt install libgl1-mesa-glx libxkbcommon-x11-0 libegl1 libdbus-1-3

or on Ubuntu 24.04 and higher:

sudo apt install libgl1 libxkbcommon-x11-0 libegl1 libdbus-1-3

On 64-bit platform, gmpy2 package for optimized symbolic computations can be useful.

To install the package from source as editable package for development and experimental usage, please follow the instructions in the Install from source section on the main README.md page of the repository: https://git.uibk.ac.at/geometrie-vermessung/rational-linkages#install-from-source