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debug
debug
 
 
gmatpy
gmatpy
 
 
plugins
plugins
 
 
API_setup.txt
API_setup.txt
 
 
README.md
README.md
 
 

README.md

Installing plugins

To communicate with Python, GMAT uses plugins that correspond to a Python version. For example, if you use Python 3.12, GMAT will use plugins in a folder called _py312. Out of the box, different versions of GMAT support different Python versions. GMAT R2022a supports Python 3.6-3.9, while GMAT R2025a supports Python 3.6-3.12.

You can add support for extra Python versions by adding the relevant files in this directory to your GMAT installation. These have been compiled and tested with GMAT R2025a. You can also compile the plugins yourself by following the GMAT compilation tutorial.

Throughout these instructions, [GMAT] refers to the root directory of your GMAT installation, e.g. .../gmat-win-2025a, and [plugins] refers to the directory that this instructions file is within.

Installation steps

  1. Download a fresh copy of GMAT from https://sourceforge.net/projects/gmat/files/latest/download and extract it. For GMAT R2025a (recommended), this will give you a folder named gmat-win-2025a.

  2. Open gmat-win-2025a. Inside will be a folder called GMAT - this is your GMAT root folder. Inside this will be a set of folders and files (api, bin, and so on).

  3. Copy the contents of the [plugins]/gmatpy folder into [GMAT]/bin/gmatpy. Then copy the contents of the [plugins]/plugins folder (that contains .dll files) into [GMAT]/plugins.

  4. OPTIONAL. If you also want to install debug plugins, copy the [plugins]/debug folder into [GMAT].

  5. You should now have folders or files with names ending py36 to py312 in [GMAT]/bin/gmatpy and [GMAT]/plugins.

  6. To get GMAT to use a non-default version of Python, you need to modify two files in [GMAT]/bin: api_startup_file.txt and gmat_startup_file.txt. In each of these, within the Plugins section, replace the endings for library files libPythonInterface_py3xx and libExternalForceModel_py3xx with the Python version you want to use. For example, if GMAT is currently setup for Python 3.9, but you want to use Python 3.12, libPythonInterface_py39 would become libPythonInterface_py312. Four lines will need modifying in total, one for each of the library files, in each of the .txt files.

  7. To set up the Python API for the first time, follow the instructions in API_setup.txt. If you've already done that, you're good to go!