Windows Installation

Note

Windows is not officially supported at this time.

This is a complete guide to installing the IDAES framework on Windows. The Extras section includes additional information which may be useful. This guide includes compiling C++ components. In the future precompiled versions of these libraries will be made available, simplifying the installation process.

Tools

Before installing the IDAES software there are a few development tools that need to be installed. There are alternatives, but an attempt was made to provide the easiest path here.

  1. Install a git client from https://git-scm.com/download/win. A git client is not necessary for all users, but if you are a developer or advanced user, you will likely want it.

  2. Install MSYS2. MSYS2 provides a shell which will allow use of Linux style build tools. It also provides a convenient package manager (pacman) which allows for easy installation of build tools.

    1. Go to https://www.msys2.org/

    2. Download the x86_64 installer

    3. Run the installer (the default options should be okay)

    4. Open the MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit terminal (go to: start menu/MSYS2 64Bit/MSYS2 MinGW 64Bit).

    5. Update the MSYS2 software:

      pacman -Syu

    6. Repeat the previous step until there are no more updates.

    7. Install the build tools and libraries. Some packages installed are group packages, and pacman will prompt to select which packages you would like to install. Press “enter” for the default, which is all.:

      pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain mingw-w64-x86_64-boost unzip patch make

    8. While MinGW does produce Windows native binaries, depending on linking options, some DLLs may be required. Add the MinWG/MSYS2 DLLs to your path. For example if MSYS2 was installed in the default location you would probably want to add C:\msys64\mingw64\bin. See Modifying the Path Environment Variable.

Note

In the MSYS2 terminal the directory structure looks different than the regular Windows directory structure. The Windows C: drive is located at /c.

Install Miniconda

  1. Download Miniconda (https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/miniconda.html)
  2. Run the Miniconda installer (default options should be fine)

Get IDAES

The two main options for getting IDAES are to download the files or to clone the repository. Cloning the repository requires a git client. For core IDAES developers or users who need to track the latest developments and have access to the idaes-dev repo, replace “idaes-pse” with “idaes-dev.”

Option 1: Download from Github

Most users can download the release files from https://github.com/IDAES/idaes-pse/releases. The latest development version can be downloaded by going to https://github.com/IDAES/idaes-pse and clicking the “Clone or Download” button then clicking on “Download Zip.” Unzip the files to a convenient location.

Option 2: Fork and Clone the Repository

For people who are not IDAES core developers but potentially would like to make contributions to the IDAES project or closely follow IDAES development, the best way to get the IDAES files is to fork the IDAES repo on Github, then clone the new fork. To fork the repository sign into your Github account, and go to https://github.com/IDAES/idaes-pse. Then, click the “Fork” button in the upper righthand corner of the page.

To clone a repository:

  1. Open a command window.

  2. Go to the directory where you want to create the local repo.

  3. Enter the command (replace “Github_Account” with the Github account of the fork you wish to clone):

    git clone https://github.com/Githhub_Account/idaes-pse

  4. The clone command should create a new idaes-pse subdirectory with a local repository.

IDAES Location

In the instructions that follow idaes_dir will refer to the directory containing the IDAES files.

Compiling ASL

The AMPL Solver Library (ASL) is required to compile some user-defined functions used in parts of the IDAES framework (mainly some property packages).

  1. Open the MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit terminal (go to: start menu/MSYS2 64Bit/MSYS2 MinGW 64Bit).

  2. Create a directory for complied source code in a convenient location, which will be referred to as src in these instructions. For example (obviously change the user name and /c is the location of the C: drive in Windows) mkdir /c/Users/jeslick/src.

  3. Go to the source directory (again replace src with the actual directory):

    cd src

  4. Download the ASL and compile the ASL:

    wget https://ampl.com/netlib/ampl/solvers.tgz
tar -zxvf solvers.tgz
cd solvers
./configure
make

Compiling IDAES AMPL Function Extensions

IDAES uses some additional user defined AMPL functions for various purposes, but mainly for physical properties. Before installing IDAES these functions must be compiled.

  1. Open the MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit terminal.

  2. Set the ASL_BUILD environment variable (the directory may differ depending on the architecture and replace .../src with the actual location of your src directory):

    export ASL_BUILD=/c/.../src/solvers/sys.`uname -m`.`uname -s`

  3. Go to the IDAES directory (replace /c/idaes_dir with the location of the IDAES files):

    cd /c/idaes_dir/idaes_pse/

  4. Run: make

If the compile finishes without errors you can proceed to installing IDAES.

Install IDAES

  1. Open the Anaconda Command prompt

  2. Create an idaes environment and activate it (optional):

    conda create -n idaes "python>=3.6" pip
conda activate idaes

Note

If you are using a version of conda older than 4.4 the command on Windows to activate a conda environment (for example idaes) is activate idaes.

  1. Install requirements:

    pip install -r requirements.txt

  2. Install IDAES:

    python setup.py develop

  3. (Optional) Install IPOPT:

    conda install -c conda-forge ipopt

Extras

Building Documentation

Most users do not need to build this documentation, but if necessary you can. The instructions here use make from the MSYS2 installed above.

  1. Open the Anaconda Command prompt, and activate the IDAES environment

  2. Go to the IDAES directory

  3. Go to the docs subdirectory

  4. Add the MSYS2 bin directory to your path temporarily. For example, if MSYS2 is installed in the default location:

    set Path=%Path%;C:\msys64\usr\bin

  5. Run make (from MSYS2):

    make html

The HTML documentation will be in the “build” subdirectory.

Compiling IPOPT

It’s not required to compile IPOPT yourself, and these are pretty much the standard IPOPT compile instructions. If you have set up MSYS2 as above, you should be able to follow these instructions to compile IPOPT for Windows.

  1. Download IPOPT from https://www.coin-or.org/download/source/Ipopt/, and put the zip file in the src directory created above. The Ipopt source is also available from other locations, but source code from other locations may not include the scripts to download third-party libraries.

  2. Open the MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit terminal (go to: start menu/MSYS2 64Bit/MSYS2 MinGW 64Bit).

  3. Unzip Ipopt (the * here represents the portion of the file name with the Ipopt version information):

    unzip Ipopt*.zip
cd Ipopt*

  4. Get third party libraries:

    cd ThirdParty/ASL
./get.ASL
cd ../Blas
./get.Blas
# and so on for all the other subdirectories except HSL.

  5. (Optional) Get the HSL source code from https://www.hsl.ac.uk/ipopt. You will need to fill out a request from and be emailed a download link. Extract the files. Depending on how you extract the files there may be an extra directory level. Find the directory containing the HSL files and rename it “coinhsl.” Copy the renamed directory to the HSL subdirectory of the Ipop ThirdParty directory. The results of the configure script below should show that the HSL was found. Refer to the Ipopt documentation if necessary.

  6. Go to the IPOPT directory (replace $IPOPT_DIR with the IPOPT directory):

    cd $IPOPT_DIR
./configure
make

  7. The IPOPT AMPL executable will be in ./Ipopt/src/Apps/AmplSolver/ipopt.exe, you can move the executable to a location in the path (environment variable). See Modifying the Path Environment Variable.

Modifying the Path Environment Variable

The Windows Path environment variable provides a search path for executable code and dynamically linked libraries (DLLs). You can temporarily modify the path in a command window session or permanently modify it for the whole system.

Changing Path Via the Control Panel

This method will modify the path for the whole system. Running programs especially open command windows will need to be restarted for this change to take effect.

  1. Any version of Windows

    1. Press the “Windows Key.”
    2. Start to type “Control Panel”
    3. Click on “Control Panel” in the start menu.
    4. Click “System and Security.”
    5. Click “System.”
    6. Click “Advanced system settings.”
    7. Click “Environment Variables.”

  2. In Windows 10

    1. Press the “Windows Key.”
    2. Start to type “Environment”
    3. Click on “Edit the system environment” in the start menu.
    4. Click “Environment Variables.”

Temporary Change in Command Window

This method temporarily changes the path in just the active command window. Once the command window is closed the change will be lost.

Set the Path variable to include any additional directories you want to add to the path. Replace “added_directory” with the directory you want to add:

set Path=%Path%;added_directory