2.2. Installing MFiX on MacOS

MFiX is supported on the MacOS platform as of MFiX release 22.2. We provide installable packages for both Intel and M1-based Macs. In the following, arm64 refers to M1 (Apple Silicon) and x86_64 refers to Intel CPUs. It has been tested on MacOS 13.4.1 “Ventura”.

If you have an issue running or installing MFiX on your system, ask for help at Support forum.

2.2.1. Install Miniforge3

Miniforge3 is a minimal version of the Anaconda Python distribution, which is used for many scientific computing projects. MFiX uses many supporting libraries, and the easiest way to install MFiX and its dependencies is via the conda packages hosted at conda-forge and NETL. As of the 23.4 release we recommend the Miniforge3 installation over Anaconda for easier installation.

First, download the MacOS version of the Miniforge3 installer for your CPU: arm64 (~58MB) or x86_64 (~60MB).

Next, go to your Downloads folder and run the downloaded file.

  1. Open a Terminal (Type “⌘-Spacebar”, type “terminal”)

  2. cd to the directory of the downloaded installer (for example ~/Downloads)

  3. Run the downloaded installer: bash Miniforge3-MacOSX-*.sh⏎

  4. When prompted for an installation location, hit enter to use the default, or enter the directory of your choice.

  5. When prompted to run conda init, say yes.

Miniforge is now installed. In order for the changes to take effect, close the terminal and open a new one. Verify that your PATH was updated by running conda in the new terminal.

If you are upgrading from a previous version of MFiX and you already have Miniforge or Anaconda installed, you may skip this step (but see note below).

Note

If you have previously installed MFiX with Anaconda, you can continue to use your existing Anaconda installation. We are recommending Miniforge for new installations. If you are using Anaconda we recommend setting channel priority to conda-forge:

$ conda activate base
(base)$ conda config --add channels conda-forge
(base)$ conda config --set channel_priority strict

2.2.2. Install MFiX

After installing Miniforge, install MFiX:

  1. Open a terminal.

  2. Browse to MFiX Download (requires registration and login)

  3. Copy the installation command.

  4. Paste it in the terminal.

  5. Press enter to run the command.

Note

If you have previously installed this version of MFiX, you will see the following message. Select y to confirm. This will delete the previous MFiX installation and replace it.

WARNING: A conda environment already exists at ...
Remove existing environment (y/[n])? y

MFiX will be installed in a new conda environment. The process may take a few minutes to complete.

2.2.3. Run MFiX

To run MFiX:

  1. Open a terminal

  2. Run conda activate mfix-24.4

  3. Run mfix⏎ to start MFiX

Your prompt should look something like this:

$ conda env create -n mfix-24.4 mfix==24.4 ...

$ conda env list
# conda environments:
#
base               *  /Users/user/miniforge3
mfix-24.4        /Users/user/miniforge3/envs/mfix-24.4

$ conda activate mfix-24.4

(mfix-24.4)$ mfix

You are now ready to proceed to the First tutorial and Tutorials.

Note

Activating a conda environment sets certain environment variables such as PATH in the current shell. It does not create a new shell session.

You will need to activate the environment every time before running MFiX.

2.2.4. Deactivate conda environment

After using MFiX you can just exit to leave the terminal session. However, if you need to deactivate the mfix-24.4 conda environment, you can do so with:

(mfix-24.4)$ conda deactivate
$

This returns to the base conda environment.

2.2.5. Uninstall MFiX

To remove an MFiX version, installed from conda packages, simply remove the conda environment (if you have the environment activated, deactivate it first):

(mfix-24.4)$ conda deactivate
$ conda env remove -n mfix-24.4

To uninstall Miniforge entirely, remove the directory you installed it to. By default, this is ~/miniforge3 in your home directory. From the terminal:

$ cd ~
$ rm -rf miniforge3/

For Anaconda, the default directory is anaconda3.

Also be sure to edit your shell startup files to remove the conda init section at the end.

Note

To learn more about managing conda environments, visit the conda documentation . To learn more about miniforge, see the Miniforge3 README.