Installation guide for macOS

There are 3 ways to use CEA.

  1. CEA Dashboard: This a graphical user interface to CEA, open source and developed by the CEA Team using web-based technology.

  2. CEA Command Line: This is the command line to all the commands of CEA from your computer terminal.

  3. The Pycharm Interface: this interface provides access to all the source code of CEA.

Both Non-Developer and Developer versions support the CEA Dashboard interface.

If you intend to use the Pycharm Interface and/or CEA Command Line, install the Developer version.

Non-Developer version

Step 1: Download and install CEA.

  1. Download the latest version of CEA here.

  2. Open the installer and drag the APP into Applications.

Step 2: Run CEA Dashboard.

  1. Locate the CEA application in the Applications folder or Launchpad and double click on it

  2. Start using CEA Dashboard

Here you can find a series of tutorials at CEA Learning Camp to help you get started!

Developer version

Step 1: Download and install CEA.

a) Fresh installation

  1. Open GitHub Desktop from the start menu.

  2. Clone the CEA repository with the following URL: https://github.com/architecture-building-systems/CityEnergyAnalyst

  3. Clone the CEA GUI repository with the following URL: https://github.com/architecture-building-systems/CityEnergyAnalyst-GUI

  4. Install CEA backend:

    1. Open a Terminal console

    2. Type cd ~/Documents/GitHub/CityEnergyAnalyst and press ENTER.

    3. Type micromamba env create -n cea -f conda-lock.yml and press ENTER.

    4. Type micromamba activate cea and press ENTER.

    5. Type pip install -e . and press ENTER (mind the dot ‘.’!).

  5. Build the CEA dashboard:

    1. Type cd ~/Documents/GitHub/CityEnergyAnalyst-GUI and press ENTER.

    2. Type micromamba activate cea and press ENTER.

    3. Type yarn and press ENTER.

    4. Type yarn electron:build and press ENTER.

    5. You will find the CEA dashboard in the folder /Users/your_name/Documents/GitHub/CityEnergyAnalyst-GUI/out/mac-*/CityEnergyAnalyst-GUI.app

b) Update existing installation

These steps would only work if your current installation is installed using the steps above.

  1. Update CEA backend:

    1. Open a Terminal console

    2. Type cd ~/Documents/GitHub/CityEnergyAnalyst and press ENTER.

    3. Type git pull and press ENTER.

    4. Type micromamba env remove -n cea and press ENTER.

    5. Type micromamba env create -n cea -f conda-lock.yml and press ENTER.

    6. Type micromamba activate cea and press ENTER.

    7. Type pip install -e . and press ENTER (mind the dot ‘.’!).

  2. Update the CEA Dashboard:

    1. Type cd ~/Documents/GitHub/CityEnergyAnalyst-GUI and press ENTER.

    2. Type git pull and press ENTER.

    3. Type micromamba activate cea and press ENTER.

    4. Type yarn and press ENTER.

    5. Type yarn electron:build and press ENTER.

    6. You will find the new CEA dashboard in the folder /Users/your_name/Documents/GitHub/CityEnergyAnalyst-GUI/out/mac-*/CityEnergyAnalyst-GUI.app

Step 3: Run CEA Dashboard.

In order to launch the CEA dashboard, you will need to do the following each time:

  1. Open the Terminal

  2. Type micromamba activate cea and press ENTER.

  3. Type cea dashboard and press ENTER.

  4. Wait for start socketio.run to appear (This might 3 min the first time)

  5. Navigate your Finer to this location (/Users/your_name/Documents/GitHub/CityEnergyAnalyst-GUI/out/mac-*/CityEnergyAnalyst-GUI.app)

  6. Double click on the CEA Icon (CityEnergyAnalyst-GUI.app)

  7. Wait for the CEA Dashboard to launch

Here you can find a series of tutorials at CEA Learning Camp to help you get started!

Step 4: Access CEA using the Pycharm Interface.

In order to access and work on the source code of CEA from pycharm, do:

  1. Download and install Pycharm Community edition (64-bit) OR your own favorite editor.

  2. Open PyCharm from the start menu and open project CityEnergyAnalyst (stored where you downloaded CityEnergyAnalyst).

  3. Open File>Settings>Project:CityEnergyAnalyst>Project Interpreter>Project Interpreter.

  4. Click on the settings button (it looks like a wheel) next to the current interpreter path, and click Add.

  5. Click Conda Environment from the left hand list and select existing environment.

  6. Point to the location of your conda environment. It should look something like /Users/your_name/mamba/envs/cea/python.exe or /Users/your_name/AppData/Local/conda/conda/envs/cea/python.exe where your_name represents your user name on your Mac.

  7. Click apply changes.

Attention

We ended Support of Grasshopper on 20.03.20. The legacy code can be found in our github repository/legacy.

As of 24.06.2024, you may export and load your Grasshopper geometries into CEA using a provisional link explained in this CEA Lesson.

Attention

We ended Support of ArcGIS on 15.04.19. The legacy code can be found in our github repository/legacy