Installing Opus & UrbanSim on Windows using the Opus Installer
These following instructions are for installing Opus & UrbanSim on
Windows using the Opus Installer. This works either for installing a stable
release of the system or for installing the
latest development version of the system (there is an option in the installation
process to select which version of the code and sample data you want).
These installation directions have been tested with Windows XP
and Intel processors. The Opus Installer requires an internet connection during installation.
Are you an ArcGIS user? Please read our OPUS-ArcGIS installation notes
before running the OPUS installer.
- Download the Opus Installer
- Run the Opus Installer
- Select what to install
- Test your installation
The Opus Installer can be downloaded from
here.
This will download an executable file called opus_installer.exe.
During the course of the installer, Opus and Urbansim code will be installed.
A number of programs that Opus and
Urbansim depends upon will also be installed. In order to install these other
programs, the Opus Installer will launch other installers that may require
you to click through them. With a high-speed connection, expect
installation to take around 30 minutes. The Opus Installer will also prompt
you to reboot your computer at the end of the installation process. You
should do so at your earliest convenience.
The Opus and Urbansim code can then be found in the src subdirectory of the
installation directory that you specify (the default is C:/opus).
It will also create a data directory which will hold the results of simulations.
If the hard drive which contains your installation directory
does not have enough capacity to store the results of simulations, you should
move the directory to another drive and
update the OPUS_DATA_PATH environment variable to your new data directory.
To run the installer, double-click the opus_installer.exe file downloaded in step one.
A set of options will appear that looks like:
See the options section to determine if you have any additional
installation requirements beyond the default.
The Opus Installer will install a number of programs and components by default. The installer is
also capable of installing other programs and packages that you may wish to use.
In this section, we describe what is installed by default and the additional software that can be installed
if chosen.
Opus and UrbanSim are implemented in the Python programming language. The official
Python website includes documentation, downloads, and much else. The Opus Installer will
download and install Python 2.5. If you already have Python 2.5 installed,
the installer will skip the installation of Python.
There are a few different programs that may be useful to you.
Database integration: If you require a database server to be
installed on your local machine, the Opus Installer provides options to
download MySQL or PostgreSQL. Opus-specific
configuration options for MySQL can be found
here. Opus can also interoperate with other database management
systems such as Microsoft SQL Server (MS-SQL), but are not available through the installer.
R Project: If you have interest in using
the R project's environment for integrated statistical analysis
and visualization. More information can be found
here.
Opus and UrbanSim make heavy use of numerical
Python packages for scientific computing, graphical packages, and also requires software for communicating with databases. This part of the installer will
download and install these required packages. Information about each
is readily available on the internet for those interested. Note: The PyQt installer may
declare that it cannot find Python 2.5 installed on your system. You should ignore this message and
continue with the installation.
You may wish to install a number of optional python packages:
- RPy: Install this package if you have installed R (for example,
in the optional software section of this
installer). This is a Python interface for the statistical programming
language R (tested with version 0.4.6).
PyQt: Selecting this option will install a number of components. Of most importance,
it will install Qt, a framework for creating graphical user interfaces.
It also installs PyQt, which allows Python to use Qt.
More information can be found at the
PyQt website.
Note: If you choose to install PyQt,
the PyQt installer may declare that it cannot find
Python 2.5 installed on your system. You should ignore this message and
continue with the installation.
-->
- dbfpy: If you need to use .dbf files (for example, those
produced by ArcGIS), choose to install dbfpy.
The Opus Installer will download this code from the subversion repository to
a folder in your opus directory called src (for source code).
For those of you who plan on doing software development,
it may be easier to follow the IDE installation
instructions for downloading, using, changing, and committing Opus code.
Currently, the installer will install the following Opus and UrbanSim specific packages:
- opus_core: the fundamental Opus code
- urbansim: the code for the basic UrbanSim modeling system
- opus_gui: the code for the graphical interface
- urbansim_gridcell: configurations for the gridcell version of the system (used for the Eugene application)
- eugene: an example application of UrbanSim to the Eugene, Oregon region
- urbansim_parcel: code and configurations for the parcel version of the system (used for the Seattle application)
- psrc, psrc_parcel, seattle_parcel: code and configurations for Seattle application
Follow these instructions to test if your
installation was successful.
