Installing Pre-Built Tracktable

Pip

As of Version 1.2, Tracktable is available on the Python Package Index (PyPI, https://pypi.org) and can be installed with pip as long as you’re running Python 3.5 or newer. Use the following command:

pip install tracktable

Note

If this fails, look carefully at the error message. It is most likely an error while trying to install Cartopy, a map rendering toolkit that Tracktable uses to render images. This will show up as a complaint about a GEOS version or a request for Proj 4.9.0.

The solution is to install Cartopy yourself before you try to install Tracktable.

  • If you’re using Anaconda, the command conda install -c conda-forge cartopy should do it.

  • If you’re using pip and the Cartopy required dependencies have been installed then the command pip install cartopy should do it.

  • If neither of the aboved worked then please refer to the Cartopy installation instructions for additional ways to install Cartopy.

After you have installed Cartopy, retry pip install tracktable.

Anaconda Virtual Environment

If you have Anaconda installed then the Anaconda virtual environment command below will create and configure a virtual environment that is ready to use Tracktable. Enter the following commands in a command/terminal/Anaconda prompt.

  • Create the Anaconda virtual environment

    • conda create --name tracktable --channel defaults --channel conda-forge --yes python pip folium pyshp pytz cartopy pip[tracktable]

  • Verify that the tracktable virtual environment was created

    • conda env list

  • Activate the virtual environment

    • conda activate tracktable

  • Deactivate the virtual environment

    • conda deactivate

  • If the virtual environment is no longer needed then it can be removed

    • conda remove --name tracktable --all

Note for Windows Users

If you are using Tracktable under Windows, you might also need to install the C++ runtime library. This is a necessary component for any program compiled with Microsoft’s Visual C++ suite. You can get it from the following URL:

https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

The most common indication that you’re missing this library is an import error referring to the “_core_types” library when you try to import Tracktable in a Python interpreter.