Overview

Running PlatoSim always follows the same three steps:

1. Install PlatoSim, either with Conda or from source (see the installation overview). When you update PlatoSim, rebuild the code (source installation only) and update the Python packages as described on those pages.

2. Set the environment variables that tell PlatoSim where it is installed and where your own files are (see Prerequisites).

3. Run a simulation, from the command line or from Python (see Run simulations). A simulation is configured with a YAML input file and writes its results to an HDF5 output file.

The default configuration runs out of the box: you do not need to download extra data. Realistic (mapped) PSFs are optional and can be downloaded separately (see PSF data packages).