Installation

lpy_treesim ships as a Python package plus a collection of L-Py grammars, so you need both the OpenAlea/L-Py toolchain and the Python modules in this repo. OR you can use the provided Docker container with everything preinstalled.

Installing manually

  • Conda (recommended) for installing openalea.lpy and PlantGL.

  • A GPU is not required; everything runs on CPU.

Set up the L-Py environment

  1. Create a dedicated environment that contains L-Py and PlantGL:

    conda create -n lpy openalea.lpy=3.14.1 python=3.10 -c fredboudon -c conda-forge

  2. Activate the environment any time you work on the project:

    conda activate lpy

  3. Validate the installation by launching the GUI (optional but handy for debugging grammars):

    lpy

Install lpy_treesim

With the environment active, clone and install the package in editable mode so that L-Py can import your custom prototypes:

git clone https://github.com/OSUrobotics/lpy_treesim.git
cd lpy_treesim
pip install -e .

Editable installs expose modules such as lpy_treesim.ColorManager and ensure examples/<tree> can import the shared base grammar.

Docker-based installation (GUI + Conda preconfigured)

If you prefer a containerized setup with a browser-based GUI (noVNC) and a preconfigured lpy environment, use the provided Dockerfile. This is the fastest way to get a working L-Py environment without troubleshooting local graphics or conda channels.

Build the image:

docker build -t lpy-treesim:ubuntu22 .

Run the container (exposing GUI ports and mounting only what you need):

# Mount your local repo to /app for editable install, and a dedicated results dir
mkdir -p ./results
docker run -d --name lpy-gui \
        -p 6080:6080 -p 5900:5900 \
        -v ${PWD}:/app \
        -v ${PWD}/results:/results \
        -w /app lpy-treesim:ubuntu22

Connect to the GUI:

http://localhost:6080/vnc.html?host=localhost&port=6080

Notes:

  • The container launches an xterm with the lpy conda environment activated.

  • The entrypoint installs the package from /app in editable mode so your

    local changes take effect immediately.

Optional tooling

The repository includes a Sphinx documentation project. To build the docs locally install Sphinx, then run make:

cd lpy_treesim/lpy_treesim/docs
pip install sphinx
make html

Open _build/html/index.html in a browser to preview the rendered docs.