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Installation

This page explains how to install PythonSCAD on common platforms.

Linux (Debian / Ubuntu / APT)

PythonSCAD packages are published to an APT repository. See https://repos.pythonscad.org/apt/ for detailed instructions.

Alternatively you can download the latest Debian package from our downloads page.

Linux (Fedora / CentOS / RHEL / YUM / DNF)

PythonSCAD packages are published to a YUM repository. See https://repos.pythonscad.org/yum/ for detailed instructions.

Alternatively you can download the latest RPM package from our downloads page.

GNU Guix

We try to keep PythonSCAD up to date in GNU Guix by periodically submitting updated package definitions. You can run guix install pythonscad to install it or use one of the other methods (e.g. guix home).

AppImage (Linux)

AppImages should be distribution agnostic and should run on most Linux distributions.

Download the AppImage from the downloads page. To use it system-wide you can make it executable and move it into a directory on your PATH (for example /usr/local/bin):

chmod +x PythonSCAD-<version>.AppImage
sudo mv PythonSCAD-<version>.AppImage /usr/local/bin/pythonscad

Windows

We provide both a ZIP distribution and an installer for Windows.

  • ZIP: extract the zip somewhere convenient and run the contained pythonscad.exe.
  • Installer: run the installer to install PythonSCAD on your system.

Note about digital signing:

Currently the installer and binaries are not digitally signed with a Microsoft Authenticode certificate. This means Windows SmartScreen or antivirus software may show warnings or block execution. Typical steps to run unsigned software on Windows:

  • If Windows shows a SmartScreen warning, click More info then Run anyway.
  • If Windows blocks the file, right-click the downloaded file, choose Properties, and check Unblock (if present), then click OK and retry.
  • You may need to run the installer as Administrator for system-wide installation.

macOS

The macOS application bundle provided is not yet signed with an Apple Developer ID. Gatekeeper may prevent the app from opening on first launch. Typical ways to open an unsigned app:

  1. Right-click (or control-click) the app in Finder and choose Open. In the dialog that appears, click Open again to allow launching the app this time.
  2. If that does not work, you can remove the quarantine attribute from the app in Terminal (use with caution):
sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/PythonSCAD.app

Using the GUI Open option is usually the safest way to grant permission for a single unsigned app.

Installing via Python (pip / pipx)

PythonSCAD is available on PyPI. Installing via pip compiles the C++ extension from source, so you will need the build dependencies listed below.

Build dependencies

A C++17 compiler, pkg-config, bison, flex, and the following libraries must be installed before running pip install:

  • Eigen3, CGAL, GMP, MPFR
  • Freetype2, Fontconfig, HarfBuzz
  • libxml2, glib2, Cairo
  • double-conversion

On Debian/Ubuntu you can install them with:

sudo ./scripts/get-dependencies.py --yes --profile pythonscad-qt5

Install from PyPI

pip install pythonscad

Alternative: install from source

  • Install from a local checkout:
pip install .

# or install in editable/development mode
pip install -e .
  • Install directly from the Git repository:
pip install git+https://github.com/pythonscad/pythonscad.git
  • pipx can be used to install the CLI in an isolated environment:
pipx install pythonscad

Remember these installs are local to the Python environment used by pip/pipx and do not create system packages.

If you encounter problems installing or running the applications, please create an issue on our GitHub page.