Install Dakota

Installing Binary Distribution

If you wish to run Dakota on one of the supported platforms, we suggest that you download the relevant binary executable distribution rather than the source code distribution. This gets you up and running quickly and lets you gain an understanding of Dakota by running the example problems that are provided with the binary distributions. Note that our Linux binaries are built with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL6 or RHEL7 depending on the Dakota version), and likely will not work on other Linux distributions.

  1. Get the Dakota binary installation for your platform.
  2. Extract Dakota zip or tar.gz file.
  3. Set enviornment variables. Optionally, set the PYTHONPATH to use the dakota.interfacing Python module.

Bash: Edit .bashrc (see additional details)

# 1. Set Dakota installation directory
INSTALL_DIR=/path/to/Dakota/installation  

# 2. Set path
#    A. Linux
        export PATH=$INSTALL_DIR/bin:$INSTALL_DIR/share/dakota/test:$INSTALL_DIR/gui:$PATH

#    B. Mac OS X
        export PATH=$INSTALL_DIR/bin:$INSTALL_DIR/share/dakota/test:$INSTALL_DIR/gui/Contents/MacOS:$PATH

# 3. (Optional) Set PYTHONPATH
     export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:$INSTALL_DIR/share/dakota/Python

$ source ~/.bashrc # Or other startup file on OS X

C Shell: Edit .cshrc (see additional details)

# 1. Set Dakota installation directory
     INSTALL_DIR=/path/to/Dakota/installation  

# 2. Set path
#    * Linux
       set path=($INSTALL_DIR/bin $INSTALL_DIR/share/dakota/test $INSTALL_DIR/gui $path)
#    * Mac OS X
       set path=($INSTALL_DIR/bin $INSTALL_DIR/share/dakota/test $INSTALL_DIR/gui/Contents/MacOS $path)

# 3. (Optional) Set PYTHONPATH
     setenv PYTHONPATH "${PYTHONPATH}:${INSTALL_DIR}/share/dakota/Python"
$ source ~/.cshrc

Windows Instructions (see additional details)

# 1. Set Dakota installation directory 
     set install_dir=c:\path\to\Dakota\installation 

# 2. Set path 
     set path=%path%;%install_dir%\bin;%install_dir%\test;%install_dir%\lib 

# 3. (Optional) Set PYTHONPATH 
     set PYTHONPATH=%PYTHONPATH%;%install_dir%\share\dakota\Python

Compiling from Source Code

For more experienced users, Dakota can be built from the source code. Download the source code distribution if:

  • You want to customize Dakota with additional packages, e.g., to enable QUESO for Bayesian calibration;
  • You are installing to a platform not listed in the binary executable distribution list; or
  • You have previously licensed DOT, NPSOL, and/or NLPQL and want to to add these packages to the Dakota build.
  1. Get the Dakota source code.
  2. Build Dakota (see link below):