Get Started

Installation / Set Up

  1. Create an account on Portal with the email from your institution.

    Tip

    Check the box “Remember Me” for QLabs to remember your account

  2. Download Quanser Interactive Labs

    Note

    All available content should be available to you on the main screen. If something is missing, try logging out and logging back in again.

    Attention

    Alternatively, the below installers are only needed for Python-only Quanser Interactive Labs users, who do not intend to use Quanser Interactive Labs with MATLAB® Simulink® and do not intend to use Quanser virtual and physical systems on the same machine (with QUARC).

    Virtual-Only Python-Only Quanser Interactive Labs Download Links: | Windows Download | macOS Download

    On Linux computers, both the Quanser Interactive Labs for Linux and the Quanser SDK for Linux can be installed at the same time by running the commands shown on the Linux tab below.

  3. Open Quanser Interactive Labs and log in.

  4. Scroll using a mouse wheel or the arrow keys on either side of the screen to the product of choice. Alternatively you can also right-click and drag left/right to scroll through available modules.

  5. Click on the product of choice and select the workspace of choice. Note that not all products have an open world workspace.

Running a Python Script for QLabs Open Worlds

In order to run a python script in QLabs to control the environment and its objects, a few things will be required.

Prerequisites

Download Python

If you don’t already have python installed on your computer, you can download it from here.

Important

We have currently tested compatibility Python 3.8 or newer. It is advised to not use an earlier version.

Important

Ensure that you check the box that says ‘Add Python to Path’ when installing Python.

Python Package Update

For Quanser Interactive Labs to work with Python, certain base level Quanser API libraries are required.

Attention Windows, Linux & macOS Users

On macOS computers, the required Quanser API libraries are included with your Quanser Interactive Labs installation, and hence, you will need to have Quanser Interactive Labs installed before running the commands shown on the macOS tab below.

On Linux computers, the required Quanser API libraries are provided by installing the Quanser SDK for Linux. For more information about the Quanser SDK for Linux, please visit its GitHub repository. To install both the Quanser Interactive Labs for Linux and the Quanser SDK for Linux, run the commands shown on the Linux tab below.

On Windows computers, the required Quanser API libraries are provided by installing the Quanser SDK for Windows. For more information about the Quanser SDK for Windows, please visit its GitHub repository. To download the Quanser SDK for Windows installer, click on the following link Download Quanser SDK for Windows. After completing the installation, make sure the files in the “%QSDK_DIR%python” folder below have the same date (for example, 2024.3.8) as the date in the following code below before running it. To check this, go to the “%QSDK_DIR%python” folder, which is typically under the “C:\Program Files\” directory.

# Type this into your Windows Command Prompt
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
python -m pip install --upgrade --find-links "%QSDK_DIR%python" "%QSDK_DIR%python\quanser_api-2024.3.8-py2.py3-none-any.whl"

If you have trouble or for more information about our python APIs or installing individual python APIs check out the documentation here: click here.

GitHub QLabs Libraries Download

If you have purchased a hardware product with us, the Research Resources.zip file should automatically include Quanser Interactive Labs Libraries in its setup file and you can skip this step. However, if you would like to only download the libraries by themselves you will need to follow the steps below.

Download our install.py script by entering the following in your command prompt:

# Navigate to your downloads or where ever you would like this file to be downloaded to then run the below line
curl -L -o install.py https://raw.githubusercontent.com/quanser/Quanser_Interactive_Labs_Resources/main/install.py

Navigate to the install.py file and run this in the command window using the following code:

# cd to the directory where this install file is located
python install.py

This install should work with Linux, macOS and Windows computers to install the qvl folders and files.

At this point you should be ready to build and run a test script!