Python Environment Installation

It is possible to run Isaac Sim natively from Python rather than as a standalone executable. This provides more low-level control over how to initialize, setup, and manage an Omniverse application.

Default Python Environment

Isaac Sim provides a built-in Python 3.10 environment that packages can use, similar to a system-level Python install. We recommend using this Python environment when running the Python scripts.

Run the following from the Isaac Sim root folder to start a Python script in this environment:

./python.sh path/to/script.py

Note

  • You can open a terminal directly at the Isaac Sim root folder from the Isaac Sim App Selector.

  • If you need to install additional packages via pip, run the following:

    ./python.sh -m pip install name_of_package_here

Note

  • On windows use python.bat instead of python.sh

See also

See the Python Environment manual for more details about python.sh.

Jupyter Notebook Setup

Jupyter Notebooks that use Isaac Sim can be executed as follows:

./jupyter_notebook.sh path/to/notebook.ipynb

Note

  • The first time you run jupyter_notebook.sh, it will install the Jupyter Notebook package into the Isaac Sim Python environment, this may take several minutes.

Note

  • Currently, Jupyter notebook is supported on Linux only.

See also

See the Jupyter Notebooks documentation for more details.

Visual Studio Code Support

The Isaac Sim package provides a .vscode workspace with a pre-configured environment that provides the following:

  • Launch configurations for running in standalone Python mode, or the interactive GUI

  • An environment for Python auto-complete

You can open this workspace by opening the main Isaac Sim package folder in Visual Studio Code (VSCode).

Note

Using Visual Studio Code when going through tutorials and examples is recommended.

See also

See the Visual Studio Code (VSCode) Support documentation for details about the VSCode workspace.

Advanced: Running In Docker

Start the Docker container following the instructions in Container Deployment up to step 8.

Once the Isaac Sim container is running, you can run a Python script or Jupiter Notebook from the sections above.

Note

  • You can install additional packages via pip:

    ./python.sh -m pip install name_of_package_here

  • See Save Docker Image for commiting the image and making the Python setup installation persistent.

Advanced: Running with Anaconda

Create a new environment with the following command:

conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate isaac-sim

If you have an existing conda environment, ensure that the packages in environment.yml are installed. Alternatively, you can delete and re-create your conda environment as follows:

conda remove --name isaac-sim --all
conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate isaac-sim

Finally, you need to set up environment variables so that Isaac Sim python packages are located correctly. On Linux, you can do this as follows:

source setup_conda_env.sh

You can then run samples as follows in the isaac-sim conda env:

python path/to/script.py

Note

If you are using the isaac-sim Anaconda environment, use python instead of python.sh to run the samples.