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SOFA policy is to support only the latest MacOS version.

Installation with Pixi

You can download and build SOFA in only three steps without any environment installation.

Prerequisites

Installation steps

  • Clone SOFA : git clone https://github.com/sofa-framework/sofa :inbox_tray:
  • Trigger the build : run pixi run -e supported-plugins build in the sofa source folder :desktop_computer:
  • Launch SOFA : run pixi run -e supported-plugins runSofa :rocket:

⚠️ A known issue under macOS has been hotfixed in the pixi build using a patch. You don't need to do anything while using pixi, it is applied for you. FYI, the issue appeared through the use of Python from runSofa with SofaPython3 and caused a segmentation fault due to symbol duplication (the Python package from Conda Forge statically linked with libpython, conflicting with runSofa’s own linking). The patch (proposed in PR #394) is currently used in our Conda packages.

Manual installation (for developpers)

This installation method is advised for developers. It is STRONGLY advised to read through this entire doc page before getting started.

Build tools

Compiler

SOFA requires a C++17 compatible compiler.
On MacOS, we officially support MacOS >= 10.13.2 (High Sierra) and AppleClang >= 9.1.0. Check your MacOS version with system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType
Check your AppleClang version with clang --version If your MacOS version is too low, update your Mac from the App Store. If your AppleClang version is too low:
  1. Download and install the highest possible Xcode compatible with your MacOS.
    Compatibility list (taken from Wikipedia): 
    MacOS >= 11.3    : Xcode 13.2.1 (with AppleClang 13.0.0)
MacOS >= 11.0    : Xcode 12.5.1 (with AppleClang 12.0.5)
MacOS >= 10.15.4 : Xcode 12.4   (with AppleClang 12.0.0)
MacOS >= 10.15.2 : Xcode 11.7   (with AppleClang 11.0.3)
MacOS >= 10.14.4 : Xcode 11.3.1 (with AppleClang 11.0.0)
MacOS >= 10.14.3 : Xcode 10.3   (with AppleClang 10.0.1)
MacOS >= 10.13.6 : Xcode 10.1   (with AppleClang 10.0.0)
MacOS >= 10.13.2 : Xcode 9.4.1  (with AppleClang  9.1.0)
    To download any version, go to https://developer.apple.com/download/more/ and search for "Xcode".
  2. Open Xcode to automatically finalize installation
  3. In Xcode, navigate to "Xcode > Preferences > Locations" and set Command Line Tools to your Xcode version
  4. Verify Command Line Tools path: xcode-select -p
    If it is not pointing to your Xcode, change it: xcode-select --switch /Applications/Xcode.app
  5. Reboot

CMake: Makefile generator

SOFA requires at least CMake 3.22. 
brew install --cask cmake

[optional] Ninja: build system

Ninja is an alternative to Make. It has a better handling of incremental builds. 
brew install ninja

[optional] CCache: caching system

We advise you to use ccache. It is by no means mandatory, but it will dramatically improve the compilation time if you make changes to SOFA. 
brew install ccache

Dependencies

Core (required)

SOFA requires some libraries:
  • tinyXML2 
    brew install tinyxml2
  • Boost (>= 1.65.1) 
    brew install boost
  • Python 3.12 + pip + numpy + scipy 
    brew install python@3.12
brew link --force python@3.12
    Python 3.12 now favors the use of venv. We highly recommend it too. To bootstrap it, type python3.12 -m venv sofa-venv in the folder you want to keep this venv. We recommend creating it either in your home directory or in the folder containing both your sources and the build directory. Once created, you can activate it by calling source /path/to/sofa-venv/bin/activate. Now you can install all dependencies through the following commands: 
    python3.12 -m pip install --upgrade pip \
&& python3.12 -m pip install numpy scipy pybind11==2.12.0
    Now, each time you want to build or use SOFA, you first need to call source /path/to/sofa-venv/bin/activate to activate this virtual environment and get access to the dependencies.
  • Additional libraries: libPNG, libJPEG, libTIFF, Glew 
    brew install libpng libjpeg libtiff glew
  • Eigen (>= 3.2.10) 
    brew install eigen

Plugins (optional)

SOFA plugins depend on libraries that are available in the official repositories.
You probably don't need them all, but you might find it convenient to install them all and not worry about it later.
This list does not cover all available SOFA plugins, only the ones that are built by our continuous integration platform.
  • CGALPlugin 
    brew install cgal
  • SofaCUDA 
    brew install homebrew/cask-drivers/nvidia-cuda

Build SOFA

Setup your source and build directories

To set up clean repositories, we recommend arranging the SOFA directories as follows: 
sofa/
├── build/
│   ├── master/
│   └── v25.12/
└── src/
    └── < SOFA sources here >
First, checkout the sources from the Git repository:

Get the current stable version on the v25.12 branch:

git clone -b v25.12 https://github.com/sofa-framework/sofa.git sofa/src

OR get the development unstable version on the master branch:

git clone -b master https://github.com/sofa-framework/sofa.git sofa/src

Generate a Makefile with CMake

  1. Activate your venv: 
    source /path/to/sofa-venv/bin/activate
    and tell CMake to look there to find pybind11: 
    export CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/path/to/sofa-venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages
  2. Create build directories respecting the arrangement above.
  3. Run CMake.app and set source folder and build folder.
  4. Run Configure. A popup will ask you to specify the generator for the project.
    • If you installed Ninja (recommended), select CodeBlocks - Ninja.
    • Otherwise, select CodeBlocks - Unix Makefile.
  5. Keep Use default native compilers and press Done.
  6. Fix eventual dependency errors by following CMake messages (see Troubleshoot section below). Do not worry about warnings.
  7. Customize SOFA via CMake variables
    • choose the build type by setting CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE to Release or RelWithDebInfo (recommended) or Debug
    • if your Mac has a M1 processor: set CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES to arm64
    • activate or deactivate plugins: see PLUGIN_XXX variables
    • activate or deactivate functionalities: see SOFA_XXX variables
    Do not forget to Configure again to check if your changes are valid.
    NOTE: here is an exhaustive list of plugins that can be activated for an in-tree compilation.
  8. When you are ready, run Generate.

Compile

To compile, open a terminal in your build directory and run make or ninja depending on the generator you chose during CMake configuration.
Do not forget the -j option to use all your CPU cores. Time for a coffee!

Run SOFA

with the SOFA GUI

To run SOFA, locate and execute the application called runSofa. For more detailed information on how to use the application, you can refer to the page dedicated to runsofa. This documentation will provide you with further guidance on using SOFA effectively.

within a Python environment

To use SOFA within a Python3 environment, the section "using Python3" details how to set up your environment on various operating systems.