Installing

Which Python?

You’ll need Python 3.10 or greater.

The recommended way to install Python depends on your experience: Are you new to the Python packaging ecosystem or already got experience with it? If you already know what conda and pip are, and are able to install tedious packages GIS packages yourself without issue, you are experienced. If you have no idea what the previous sentence was about, you are new.

New

We recommend new users to install iMOD Python using the Deltaforge Python distribution. See Installing with Deltaforge.

Experienced

For experienced users, who want to be in control of packages installed, we recommend installing using pixi. Pixi supports creating reproducible projects, where all dependencies’ versions in an environment are stored in a textfile, the “lockfile”. On top of that, it is faster than other package managers.

Alternatively, you can use the Miniforge Python distribution. This installs the conda package manager. This installer differs from the also commonly-used Miniconda installer, in a nutshell:

• Miniforge is a community driven installers, installing by default from the conda-forge channel (Pixi also does this).

• Miniconda is a company driven installer, installing by default from the anaconda channel.

• Installing from the anaconda channel has certain (legal) limitations for “commercial use”, especially if you work in a large organization.

Installing Pixi/Mambaforge/Miniforge/Miniconda does not require administrative rights to your computer and doesn’t interfere with any other Python installations in your system.

Dependencies

The imod Python package makes extensive use of the modern scientific Python ecosystem. The most important dependencies are listed here.

Data structures:

• pandas

• numpy

• xarray

• xugrid

Delayed/out-of-core computation, parallellization:

• dask

Spatial operations:

• numba_celltree

• scipy

Geospatial libaries (optional):

• geopandas

• shapely

• pyproj

• rasterio

Data provisioning for examples:

• pooch

Visualization:

• matplotlib

• pyvista (Optional)

Installing all these dependencies requires around 2.5 gigabyte of space; Installing only the required dependencies (via pip) requires around 0.5 gigabyte.

Ways to install iMOD Python

Installing with Deltaforge

Deltaforge is an installer of Deltares python packages, including iMOD Python, and their dependencies. This makes it possible to install iMOD Python without much knowledge about the Python package management system. The download links are listed here. Users new to the python package ecosystem are recommended to install iMOD Python using Deltaforge.

Installing with pixi

Pixi supports creating reproducible projects, where all dependencies’ versions in an environment are stored in a textfile, the “lockfile”. On top of that, it is faster than other package managers. Installing with pixi is fast and easy:

pixi init my_project
cd my_project
pixi add imod

You can activate your environment using:

pixi shell

These commands create a pixi.toml and a pixi.lock. The pixi.toml contains the dependencies of your project. If you followed the commands above, the only dependency present in the toml should be imod. The pixi.lock is a textfile that captures the environment in a specific state, so all dependencies, with their dependencies and so on, with exact version numbers. This is very useful, as it allows you to get the exact same environment on a different machine, by just copying two textfiles. The lockfile will be updated if you run pixi update or change the pixi.toml file. Both the pixi.toml as well as the pixi.lock are required to fully reproduce an environment.

Installing with conda

Alternatively, you can also use the conda package manager. We advice to install imod in a seperate conda environment, as you can simply delete these in case they break. Not doing so will install imod and its dependencies in your base environment, which requires a reinstall of Miniforge in case this environment breaks:

conda create -n imodenv
conda install -n imodenv imod --channel conda-forge

conda will automatically find the appropriate versions of the dependencies and in this case install them in the imodenv environment. Installing with conda will automatically download all optional dependencies, and enable all functionality.

To run scripts using imod, you first have to activate the imodenv environment:

conda activate imodenv

Installing with pip

Finally, you can also use the pip package manager:

pip install imod

Unlike installing with conda, installing with pip will not install all optional dependencies. This results in a far smaller installation, but it means that not all functionality is directly available.

Refer to Installing Python and packages in the FAQ section for background information on conda, and pip.

Installing the latest development version

You can use pip to install the latest source from GitHub:

pip install git+https://github.com/Deltares/imod-python.git

Alternatively, you can clone the git repository locally and install from there:

git clone https://github.com/Deltares/imod-python.git
cd imod-python
pip install -e .