Install/Run pythonOCC on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) LTS in 5 steps and 10 minutes

By

Thomas Paviot

– May 4, 2010Posted in: Build/Install

A couple of days after Ubuntu 10.04 was released, Oliver Borm contributed a package for pythonOCC-0.4 (see https://launchpad.net/~cae-team/+archive/ppa). Here is how to proceed to get it run in 5 steps and less than 10 minutes of your precious time.

The following results were obtained from a new installation of Ubuntu 10.04 from the original 32 bit CDROM, on a Virtual Box 3.1.6 machine.

Step 1 : set a new package source.

Insert the following line in the source field:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/cae-team/ppa/ubuntu lucid main

Step 2 : search/install the python-occ package

From the Synaptic Package Manager utility, search for the python-occ package :

Mark python-occ for installation :

Wait for the download to be completed :

Step 3 : set the CSF_GraphicShr env variable

The CSF_GraphicShr variable must point to /usr/lib/libTKOpenGl-6.3.0.so :

Step 4 : install a GUI manager

You can choose PyQt4 or wxPython. I rather user PyQt4 :

Step 5 : run the HelloWorld example

You’re ready to run the following example (that creates/displays a box) :

from OCC.Display.SimpleGui import *
from OCC.BRepPrimAPI import *
display, start_display, add_menu, add_function_to_menu = init_display()
my_box = BRepPrimAPI_MakeBox(10.,20.,30.).Shape()
display.DisplayShape(my_box)
start_display()

If you can see the yellow box and can handle it with your mouse, you’re done. Just enjoy!

36 Comments

1. Jelle Feringa

   Posted May 4, 2010 at 11:18 AM

   A true coming-of-age moment for pythonOCC! A real step forward for open source CAD, CAM, KBE, PLM, CAE, you name it ;’)

2. Guillaume Demésy

   Posted May 4, 2010 at 2:58 PM

   Dear Thomas,

   Thanks a lot! It works like a charm.
   I had (unsuccessfully) been trying to build the whole stuff for 2 hours…

   Guillaume

3. Thomas

   Posted May 4, 2010 at 9:13 PM

   I’ve been working to make the installation process easier. I hope the next pythonocc package for Ubuntu will include meshing and parametric modeling features.

4. Severn

   Posted May 7, 2010 at 9:41 AM

   Nice work! I look forward to the meshing and parametric modelling…

5. Serge-É

   Posted May 7, 2010 at 9:45 AM

   I could not run pythonOCC properly. I saved the HelloWorld code into ~/Bureau/pythonocc.py

   user@computer:~/Bureau$ python pythonocc.py
   resize event for qtBaseViewer
   resize event for qtBaseViewer
   Display3d class initialization starting …
   terminate called after throwing an instance of ‘Aspect_GraphicDeviceDefinitionError’
   Abandon
   user@computer:~/Bureau$

   Moreover, I have to run “export CSF_GraphicShr=/usr/lib/libTKOpenGL-6.3.0.so” each time I open a new terminal. Is this normal?

   Regards.

6. Thomas

   Posted May 7, 2010 at 9:58 AM

   Take care to the case: ‘libTKOpenGl-6.3.0.so’ mixes upper and lower case characters. Use the tab completion feature of your shell to be sure the library name matches the one installed.

7. Axel

   Posted May 19, 2010 at 3:59 PM

   Hi

   I’ve been trying to do this example for a while now without any success.
   When I type:

   display, start_display, add_menu, add_function_to_menu = init_display()

   I get the following error messege:

   
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line 1, in
NameError: name 'display' is not defined


   Do you know what that means?

   I should probably mention that I’m am an absolute beginner with this kind of CAD programs (only been using AutoCAD for school) and I am not familiar with python programing (or any other programing language then matlab in fact).

   best regards,
   Axel

8. skrat

   Posted May 26, 2010 at 11:25 AM

   Really impressive work, thanks. I just miss some documentation, API docs doesn’t tell much as most of it is empty.

9. Loren

   Posted June 18, 2010 at 2:53 AM

   Great work! Now, how do I get PAF working?

10. shirazbj

    Posted June 22, 2010 at 6:41 AM

    >>> from OCC.Display.SimpleGui import *

    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “”, line 1, in
    from OCC.Display.SimpleGui import *
    File “C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\OCC\Display\SimpleGui.py”, line 50, in
    raise NameError(‘No backend.’)
    NameError: No backend.
    >>>

    What I can do now?

11. Thomas

    Posted June 22, 2010 at 6:50 AM

    You have to install a GUI manager : either PyQt or wxPython.

12. shirazbj

    Posted June 22, 2010 at 7:58 AM

    yes, installed a wx. got the yellow box.cool.

13. David Maulat

    Posted June 23, 2010 at 10:27 AM

    Works wonderfully! Thanks a lot for this step-by-step tutorial, I thought I would never manage to get it installed on my Ubuntu…
    Nice work!

14. geom

    Posted June 24, 2010 at 4:00 PM

    How can I run all pythonOCC sample files?

    python test_gears_sympy.py
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “test_gears_sympy.py”, line 21, in
    from OCC.PAF.Context import ParametricModelingContext
    File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/OCC/PAF/Context.py”, line 18, in
    from OCC.GEOMImpl import GEOMImpl_Gen
    ImportError: No module named GEOMImpl

    Thank you for help in advance …

15. Stéphan AUBIN

    Posted December 8, 2010 at 8:40 AM

    hell of a job !
    what I was looking for as a designer/engineer, and hoping for as an improvised python developper !!

    Stéphan

16. Steve

    Posted December 24, 2010 at 2:52 AM

    
Python 2.6.6 (r266:84292, Sep 15 2010, 16:22:56)
[GCC 4.4.5] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from OCC.Display.SimpleGui import *
>>> from OCC.BRepPrimAPI import *
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line 1, in
File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/OCC/BRepPrimAPI.py", line 28, in
_BRepPrimAPI = swig_import_helper()
File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/OCC/BRepPrimAPI.py", line 24, in swig_import_helper
_mod = imp.load_module('_BRepPrimAPI', fp, pathname, description)
ImportError: libTKjcas-6.3.0.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
>>>


    Where is libTKjcas supposed to come from? I have python-qt4 and python-wxgtk installed. What am I missing?

17. Thomas Paviot

    Posted December 24, 2010 at 3:30 AM

    You must have downloaded/installed the OpenCASCADE library.

18. Steve

    Posted December 28, 2010 at 11:35 PM

    The Ubuntu package libopencascade-foundation-dev is supposed to provide this library (according to the documentation for that package anyway) but evidently the –enable-wrappers flag was not used when they built that package.
    I have submitted a bug report on launchpad.net (see Bug #694068)

19. Steve

    Posted December 28, 2010 at 11:43 PM

    oops! Its the libopencascade-foundation package that is supposed to provide the libTKjcas library, not the libopencascade-foundation-dev mentioned above. Its that package that was compiled without the –enable-wrappers flag. Same issue, different package.

20. Thomas Paviot

    Posted December 29, 2010 at 7:31 AM

    @Steve: libTKjcas is part of a java wrapper over the OCC C++ API. It’s not necessary for pythonOCC. I removed this dependency in the svn trunk and this will not be a required dependency anymore in the next pythonOCC release.

21. victor chuman

    Posted January 10, 2011 at 5:23 PM

    Hi,

    Congratulations for the great job done!

    I have a problem when trying to run the example, this is what I get:

    
victor@CHUMAN:~$ export CSF_GraphicShr=/usr/lib/libTKOpenGl-6.3.0.so
victor@CHUMAN:~$ python
Python 2.6.5 (r265:79063, Apr 16 2010, 13:09:56)
[GCC 4.4.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from OCC.Display.SimpleGui import *
>>> from OCC.BRepPrimAPI import *
>>> display, start_display, add_menu, add_function_to_menu = init_display()
resize event for qtBaseViewer
resize event for qtBaseViewer
Display3d class initialization starting ...
Graphic device created.
Xw_Window created.
Viewer created.
Segmentation fault
victor@CHUMAN:~$

22. Richard

    Posted January 26, 2011 at 3:52 AM

    Hi,

    I was adding the new repository to my Ubuntu 10.01 system and I got this error when I reloaded my synaptic package manager:

    
W: GPG error: http://ppa.launchpad.net lucid Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 59B8C7C7E0BD7612


    Any advice on what to do?

    Richard

23. Richard

    Posted January 31, 2011 at 12:10 PM

    Just tried again and it worked \o/

    But I have tried the ‘HelloWorld’ example and I got the same output as Victor Chuman (above).

    Did you get it to work Victor and if so what did you do?

    Richard

24. Marcel

    Posted February 14, 2011 at 3:50 PM

    Hi,

    I get the following error when I run the example.

    marcel@marcel-laptop:~$ python test.py
    resize event for qtBaseViewer
    resize event for qtBaseViewer
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “test.py”, line 3, in
    display, start_display, add_menu, add_function_to_menu = init_display()
    File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/OCC/Display/SimpleGui.py”, line 150, in init_display
    win.canva.InitDriver()
    File “/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/OCC/Display/qtDisplay.py”, line 116, in InitDriver
    raise “Please set the CSF_GraphicShr environment variable.”
    TypeError: exceptions must be old-style classes or derived from BaseException, not str

    Any ideas, what I should do to solve this problem?

    Regards,

    Marcel

25. Marcel

    Posted February 14, 2011 at 4:15 PM

    Did run the “export CSF_GraphicShr=/usr/lib/libTKOpenGl-6.3.0.so”, now got

    marcel@marcel-laptop:~$ python test.py
    resize event for qtBaseViewer
    resize event for qtBaseViewer
    Display3d class initialization starting …
    Graphic device created.
    Xw_Window created.
    Viewer created.
    Segmentation fault

    Any ideas, what I should do to solve this problem?

    Regards,

    Marcel

26. Sébastien

    Posted February 18, 2011 at 6:41 AM

    Richard, Victor,

    Are you using an intel video card ?
    because there is a issue with ubuntu 10.* and intel card and OCC

    see http://code.google.com/p/pythonocc/issues/detail?id=24

27. cean

    Posted February 18, 2011 at 6:24 PM

    my error on ubuntu 10.04

    >>> display, start_display, add_menu, add_function_to_menu = init_display()
    resize event for qtBaseViewer
    resize event for qtBaseViewer
    Display3d class initialization starting …
    terminate called after throwing an instance of ‘Aspect_GraphicDeviceDefinitionError’
    Aborted
    peter@peter-laptop:~$ my_box = BRepPrimAPI_MakeBox(10.,20.,30.).Shape()
    bash: syntax error near unexpected token `(‘
    peter@peter-laptop:~$ display.DisplayShape(my_box)
    bash: syntax error near unexpected token `my_box’
    peter@peter-laptop:~$ start_display()

28. Zakiulrehman

    Posted May 13, 2011 at 11:54 PM

    HI Shirazbj
    where are from dear? I want to develop a linux based CAD/CAM and need help in this regard. I want to make a local team. Would you like to email me at zakiulrehman@gmail.com????

29. millie

    Posted July 22, 2011 at 1:35 PM

    Hi!

    Do you guys plan to make a package for ubuntu 11.04?

    Thanks!

30. Thomas Paviot

    Posted July 22, 2011 at 2:26 PM

    @millie: ubuntu packages are not official parts of pythonocc. We only provide support for OSX and Win packages.

31. Henning Meyer

    Posted July 28, 2011 at 7:13 AM

    If you are using a intel video card and experiencing the seg fault problem:
    I circumvented it by installing libgl1-mesa-swx11. Now my system is only doing software rastering, but at least it works.

    Btw: I’m building a pythonocc-0.5 packages for all major Ubuntu releases. Get them as simple as:
    
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:hmeyer/pythoncad
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python-occ

    Feel free to Flattr: http://flattr.com/thing/330866/pythonocc-package-for-Ubuntu

32. Thomas Paviot

    Posted July 28, 2011 at 7:18 AM

    @Henning Such a good news that you overcame the intel driver issue. And thank you so much for packaging pythonocc for ubuntu!

33. millie

    Posted August 2, 2011 at 3:50 PM

    @Henning:

    Great! You are the best.

34. Adrian

    Posted August 9, 2011 at 3:36 PM

    Hello,
    I was analyzing pythonOCC and it looks great.
    At work I use some Linux operating systems where I do not have administrator rights; Is there any method to use something like a portable version of pythonOCC to try it on Linux ?
    Thank you,
    Best Regards,
    Adrian

35. Charlie Warner

    Posted September 19, 2011 at 8:56 PM

    I am trying to get pyQT4 running on Ubuntu 10.04, and here’s what I get:

    1. Package source set OK
    2. Python-occ package already installed (version 0.4-1ppa2-lucid1)
    3. export CSF_GraphicShr=/usr/lib/libTKOpenGl-6.3.0.so- ok
    4. PyQT4 package already installed (version 4.7.2-oubuntu1)
    5. Running HelloWorld example:

    OK until:

    >>> display, start_display, add_menu, add_function_to_menu = init_display()
    Display3d class initialization starting …
    terminate called after throwing an instance of ‘Aspect_GraphicDeviceDefinitionError’
    Aborted

    So, What am I doing wrong?

36. Charlie Warner

    Posted September 21, 2011 at 11:04 AM

    OK. Installing libgl1-mesa-swx11 solved the problem I was having. It works. The only question I have now is, what other applications did I break with this change? There were a number of packages removed, and I am not sure what dependencies may have been broken. Apparently, there is a conflict with libgl1-mesa-glx (and a couple of other obscure packages, mostly *-dev packages), and it is not clear what sort of dependencies I have broken…