ArtiSynth Installation Guide for Windows

5 Installing a Precompiled Release

Installing one of the precompiled releases is the easiest way to obtain ArtiSynth for running demo programs or some existing models. To do this, go to www.artisynth.org/downloads, download the distribution you want, and unzip it in an appropriate location on your computer.

5.1 Running from the file browser

Once ArtiSynth is downloaded and unzipped, it should be possible to run it immediately by using a file browser to locate and then double click on the batch file

  <ARTISYNTH_HOME>\bin\artisynth.bat

You can create a shortcut to this batch file (by right clicking on it and selecting Create Shortcut), and then place the shortcut in either the START menu or on the Desktop. However, the file itself must remain in <ARTISYNTH_HOME>\bin.

5.2 Running from a terminal window

ArtiSynth can also be run from a terminal window.

To do this, open a terminal (CMD) window, set the current folder to <ARTISYNTH_HOME>, and run the command bin\artisynth:

 > cd <ARTISYNTH_HOME>
 > bin\artsiynth

If you place <ARTISYNTH_HOME>\bin in your Path environment variable (Section 14.1), then ArtiSynth can be run from a terminal window with the simple command

 > artisynth

regardless of the current folder.

Details on how to load and run demo models are given in Section 7.

A precompiled ArtiSynth distribution can also be imported into an integrated development environment (IDE), such as Eclipse, to facilitate compilation and execution. To import ArtiSynth into Eclipse, follow the instructions in Section 13.2, using <ARTISYNTH_HOME> as the project directory.