Setup
This guide will help you set up everything required to develop Generative Functions and run experiments over your engineering system.
All the setup that is needed to get started with Generative Engineering is Python and a text editor. If you already have these, your basic setup is ready.
We recommend using a package manager to manage your Python packages and builds. If you are already using one or would like to be, please follow the ‘Advanced’ track.
Install Python
Download and run the installer from the Python website.
During the installation, check the box that says “Add Python to PATH”.
Generative Function development requires Python (3.10+) (and pip, for installing Python packages, which usually comes bundled with Python).
Install an IDE (optional)
Whilst you can edit code in any software that can save text files, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment – an app for editing code) is generally recommended.
Install any IDE that you like.
Make sure you know how to open a new project and access a shell at the root of that project.
Install Python
Download and run the installer from the Python website.
During the installation, check the box that says “Add Python to PATH”.
Generative Function development requires Python (3.10+) (and pip, for installing Python packages, which usually comes bundled with Python).
Install an IDE (optional)
Whilst you can edit code in any software that can save text files, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment – an app for editing code) is generally recommended.
Install any IDE that you like.
Make sure you know how to open a new project and access a shell at the root of that project.
Install Python
Download and run the installer from the Python website.
On macOS, Python installs as python3, so you may need to use python3 and pip3 instead of python and pip when writing commands.
Some IDEs (e.g. PyCharm) handle this automatically when using their built-in terminals.
Generative Function development requires Python (3.10+) (and pip, for installing Python packages, which usually comes bundled with Python).
Install an IDE (optional)
Whilst you can edit code in any software that can save text files, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment – an app for editing code) is generally recommended.
Install any IDE that you like.
Make sure you know how to open a new project and access a shell at the root of that project.
Install Python
On Ubuntu, python3 is pre-installed, but pip is not. Install it with:
Generative Function development requires Python (3.10+) (and pip, for installing Python packages, which usually comes bundled with Python).
Install an IDE (optional)
Whilst you can edit code in any software that can save text files, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment – an app for editing code) is generally recommended.
Install any IDE that you like.
Make sure you know how to open a new project and access a shell at the root of that project.
All the setup that is needed to get started with Generative Engineering is Python and a text editor. If you already have these, your basic setup is ready.
We recommend using a package manager to manage your Python packages and builds. If you are already using one or would like to be, please follow the ‘Advanced’ track.
Install Python
Download and run the installer from the Python website.
During the installation, check the box that says “Add Python to PATH”.
Generative Function development requires Python (3.10+) (and pip, for installing Python packages, which usually comes bundled with Python).
Install an IDE (optional)
Whilst you can edit code in any software that can save text files, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment – an app for editing code) is generally recommended.
Install any IDE that you like.
Make sure you know how to open a new project and access a shell at the root of that project.
Install Python
Download and run the installer from the Python website.
During the installation, check the box that says “Add Python to PATH”.
Generative Function development requires Python (3.10+) (and pip, for installing Python packages, which usually comes bundled with Python).
Install an IDE (optional)
Whilst you can edit code in any software that can save text files, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment – an app for editing code) is generally recommended.
Install any IDE that you like.
Make sure you know how to open a new project and access a shell at the root of that project.
Install Python
Download and run the installer from the Python website.
On macOS, Python installs as python3, so you may need to use python3 and pip3 instead of python and pip when writing commands.
Some IDEs (e.g. PyCharm) handle this automatically when using their built-in terminals.
Generative Function development requires Python (3.10+) (and pip, for installing Python packages, which usually comes bundled with Python).
Install an IDE (optional)
Whilst you can edit code in any software that can save text files, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment – an app for editing code) is generally recommended.
Install any IDE that you like.
Make sure you know how to open a new project and access a shell at the root of that project.
Install Python
On Ubuntu, python3 is pre-installed, but pip is not. Install it with:
Generative Function development requires Python (3.10+) (and pip, for installing Python packages, which usually comes bundled with Python).
Install an IDE (optional)
Whilst you can edit code in any software that can save text files, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment – an app for editing code) is generally recommended.
Install any IDE that you like.
Make sure you know how to open a new project and access a shell at the root of that project.
To manage Python packages per code repository, which is useful when working with multiple code repositories, a package manager is needed. Python comes with pip, but we recommend Poetry or uv for easier package management within virtual environments per repository.
Install Scoop
Scoop is a Windows command line installer. All the recommended software required for Python development can be installed from the command line using Scoop and this is our recommended way to get set up.
Open a PowerShell terminal from the Start menu and run:
Install Python
Use scoop to install Python (3.10+) then check it works by printing the version:
Install an IDE (optional)
Whilst you can edit code in any software that can save text files, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment – an app for editing code) is generally recommended.
Install any IDE that you like.
Make sure you know how to open a new project and access a shell at the root of that project.
Install Scoop
Scoop is a Windows command line installer. All the recommended software required for Python development can be installed from the command line using Scoop and this is our recommended way to get set up.
Open a PowerShell terminal from the Start menu and run:
Install Python
Use scoop to install Python (3.10+) then check it works by printing the version:
Install an IDE (optional)
Whilst you can edit code in any software that can save text files, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment – an app for editing code) is generally recommended.
Install any IDE that you like.
Make sure you know how to open a new project and access a shell at the root of that project.
Install Homebrew
Homebrew helps make it easy to install the other dependencies.
Run the Next Steps commands shown in the console output to add brew to your path.
Install Python
Use homebrew to install Python (3.10+) then check it works by printing the version:
Install an IDE (optional)
Whilst you can edit code in any software that can save text files, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment – an app for editing code) is generally recommended.
Install any IDE that you like.
Make sure you know how to open a new project and access a shell at the root of that project.
These instructions assume you are working on Ubuntu or another Debian-based distribution with the apt package manager.
For other distributions, run the commands with the appropriate package manager.
Update the package list
Open Terminal and run:
Install Python
Install Python (3.10+) then check it works by printing the version:
Install an IDE (optional)
Whilst you can edit code in any software that can save text files, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment – an app for editing code) is generally recommended.
Install any IDE that you like.
Make sure you know how to open a new project and access a shell at the root of that project.
If you want to track changes to your code, or share it with others, Git is the go-to tool. We’d recommend checking out GitHub for a popular web-based platform which uses Git.
Next steps
Now that the setup is complete, set up your first experiment to start exploring.