Installation¶
System requirements¶
The GUI is very low resource demanding. It is advisable to run it in a screen at least 1170 x 660 pixels to see all the buttons clearly. Full HD screens (1920 x 1080) or above are recommended. For the system requirements it is recommended a modern CPU and at least 16Gb of RAM. This for agile tuning and execution of the analysis.
This specs, while recommended, are not mandatory. If you can run MATLAB 2020A then you can run this GUI and the included analysis.
Platform compatibility¶
ENCORE is compatible with Linux distributions, macOS and Windows. You can verify the current compatibility status of ENCORE by looking at the tags generated by the automated testing on each one of these platforms. Each platform has been tested against the main branch of this repository that also produces the package in PiPy.
Platform |
Versions |
Python versions tested |
Test status |
|---|---|---|---|
Windows |
Latest |
3.9, 3.10, 3.11 |
|
Ubuntu |
22.04, 24.04 |
3.9, 3.10, 3.11 |
|
macOS |
Latest |
3.9, 3.10, 3.11 |
|
Important
The compatibility of ENCORE is not limited only to the platforms and Python versions used in the GitHub Actions tests.
Note
Every time new code is pushed to the main branch of the repository a series of automatic tests are triggered. This tests installs the code in the repository using pip install .[test] in servers running the specified OS and Python versions. Then it uses pytest to execute the code in the tests/ folder, which basically ensures that ENCORE is executable and that the Python API is available for all the included algorithms.
Needed dependencies¶
The general requirements are MATLAB and Python. The limiting factor here is the communication between those two. Because Python is easier to install, I recommend installing the most recent version of python that your MATLAB installation can communicate with. Check the MATLAB site for the versions of Python that are compatible with MATLAB.
Here we are going to be using Python 3.10, which is compatible with MATLAB R2022b and above.
See also
Python 3.9 is compatible with MATLAB from R2021b to R2024b.
Tip
Use at least Python 3.9. If you are using a MATLAB version older than R2020b consider upgrading.
Needed MATLAB modules¶
Parallel Computing Toolbox
Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox
Curve Fitting Toolbox
Installation of the python environment¶
The recommended installation method relies on Conda to manage your Python environments. I highly recommend using Conda for this purpose.
Installation using pip¶
You can install ENCORE using pip. It’s still recommended that you do this using conda or some other environment manager. If you’re using conda type:
conda create -n encore python=3.10
conda activate encore
The above command will create a new environment called encore and with python 3.10 installed. You can choose the name of the environment replacing encore with the name you prefer. After the environment is created it must be activated.
To install ENCORE simply run:
pip install encore-toolkit
Verifying the installation¶
To verify that ENCORE is installed correctly, run:
python -c "import encore; print(encore.__version__)"
If the version is printed without errors, the installation was successful.
Installation of the MATLAB engine for Python¶
To run the analysis algorithms that requires MATLAB, it is necessary to install in the python environment the MATLAB engine. This can be done by looking for yor MATLAB installation path. The installation path in Windows usually looks something like this:
cd C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2023a\extern\engines\python
The idea is to locate the engine for Python. Notice in the example above that the MATLAB installation that will be used is the R2023a, you can chose the version that you prefer, just consider the compatibility with the current python version.
Once you’re there and with your correct python environment activated then simply run:
python -m pip install .
It is possible that you need to run that command from an elevated terminal.
You can find more help regarding MATLAB engine install in the official MATLAB site.
It’s also possible to install the MATLAB engine from pip, check the versions history to install the correct version of the MATLAB engine.
Use this table as a reference of compatibility between MATLAB and python versions. These versions may be installed from an elevated terminal using pip.
MATLAB-Python Compatibility¶
MATLAB |
Python 3.9 |
Python 3.10 |
Python 3.11 |
Python 3.12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2021b |
9.11.23 |
— |
— |
— |
2022a |
9.12.21 |
— |
— |
— |
2022b |
9.13.11 |
9.13.11 |
— |
— |
2023a |
9.14.7 |
9.14.7 |
— |
— |
2023b |
23.2.2 |
23.2.2 |
23.2.2 |
— |
2024a |
24.1.4 |
24.1.4 |
24.1.4 |
— |
2024b |
24.2.2 |
24.2.2 |
24.2.2 |
24.2.2 |
2025a |
25.1.2 |
25.1.2 |
25.1.2 |
25.1.2 |
2025b |
25.2.2 |
25.2.2 |
25.2.2 |
25.2.2 |
For example, to install the MATLAB engine for python 3.10 and MATLAB R2023a use the command:
pip install matlabengine==9.14.7
Run the GUI¶
To run the GUI you now just need to call encore.py from your configured python environment. Make sure you are in the path where you downloaded the repo.
encore
It’s also possible to launch the GUI by using:
python -m encore