Installation Guide

Installing Isaac Sim

From Isaac Sim 4.0 release, it is possible to install Isaac Sim using pip. This approach is experimental and may have compatibility issues with some Linux distributions.

Installing Isaac Sim with pip requires GLIBC 2.34+ version compatibility. To check the GLIBC version on your system, use command ldd --version.

This may pose compatibility issues with some Linux distributions. For instance, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS has GLIBC 2.31 by default. If you encounter compatibility issues, we recommend following the Isaac Sim Binaries Installation approach.

On Windows with CUDA 12, the GPU driver version 552.86 is required.

• To use the pip installation approach for Isaac Sim, we recommend first creating a virtual environment. Ensure that the Python version of the virtual environment is Python 3.10.

conda environment

conda create -n isaaclab python=3.10
conda activate isaaclab

venv environment

Windows:

# create a virtual environment named isaaclab with python3.10
python3.10 -m venv isaaclab
# activate the virtual environment
isaaclab\Scripts\activate

Linux:

# create a virtual environment named isaaclab with python3.10
python3.10 -m venv isaaclab
# activate the virtual environment
source isaaclab/bin/activate

• Next, install a CUDA-enabled PyTorch 2.4.0 build based on the CUDA version available on your system. This step is optional for Linux, but required for Windows to ensure a CUDA-compatible version of PyTorch is installed.

CUDA 11

pip install torch==2.4.0 --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu118

CUDA 12

pip install torch==2.4.0 --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu121

• Before installing Isaac Sim, ensure the latest pip version is installed. To update pip, run

pip install --upgrade pip

• Then, install the Isaac Sim packages necessary for running Isaac Lab:

pip install isaacsim-rl isaacsim-replicator isaacsim-extscache-physics isaacsim-extscache-kit-sdk isaacsim-extscache-kit isaacsim-app --extra-index-url https://pypi.nvidia.com

Verifying the Isaac Sim installation

• Make sure that your virtual environment is activated (if applicable)

• Check that the simulator runs as expected:

# note: you can pass the argument "--help" to see all arguments possible.
isaacsim

By default, this will launch an empty mini Kit window.

• To run with a specific experience file, run:

# experience files can be absolute path, or relative path searched in isaacsim/apps or omni/apps
isaacsim omni.isaac.sim.python.kit

When running Isaac Sim for the first time, all dependent extensions will be pulled from the registry. This process can take upwards of 10 minutes and is required on the first run of each experience file. Once the extensions are pulled, consecutive runs using the same experience file will use the cached extensions.

In addition, the first run will prompt users to accept the Nvidia Omniverse License Agreement. To accept the EULA, reply Yes when prompted with the below message:

By installing or using Isaac Sim, I agree to the terms of NVIDIA OMNIVERSE LICENSE AGREEMENT (EULA)
in https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/isaacsim/latest/common/NVIDIA_Omniverse_License_Agreement.html

Do you accept the EULA? (Yes/No): Yes

If the simulator does not run or crashes while following the above instructions, it means that something is incorrectly configured. To debug and troubleshoot, please check Isaac Sim documentation and the forums.

Installing Isaac Lab

Cloning Isaac Lab

We recommend making a fork of the Isaac Lab repository to contribute to the project but this is not mandatory to use the framework. If you make a fork, please replace isaac-sim with your username in the following instructions.

Clone the Isaac Lab repository into your workspace:

SSH

git clone [e-mail]:isaac-sim/IsaacLab.git

HTTPS

git clone https://github.com/isaac-sim/IsaacLab.git

Installation

• Install dependencies using apt (on Ubuntu):

  sudo apt install cmake build-essential

• Run the install command that iterates over all the extensions in source/extensions directory and installs them using pip (with --editable flag):

Windows

isaaclab.bat --install :: or "isaaclab.bat -i"

Linux

./isaaclab.sh --install # or "./isaaclab.sh -i"

By default, this will install all the learning frameworks. If you want to install only a specific framework, you can pass the name of the framework as an argument. For example, to install only the rl_games framework, you can run

Windows:

isaaclab.bat --install :: or "isaaclab.bat -i"

Linux:

./isaaclab.sh --install # or "./isaaclab.sh -i"

The valid options are rl_games, rsl_rl, sb3, skrl, robomimic, none.

Verifying the Isaac Lab installation

To verify that the installation was successful, run the following command from the top of the repository:

Windows

:: Option 1: Using the isaaclab.bat executable
:: note: this works for both the bundled python and the virtual environment
isaaclab.bat -p source\standalone\tutorials\00_sim\create_empty.py

:: Option 2: Using python in your virtual environment
python source\standalone\tutorials\00_sim\create_empty.py

Linux

# Option 1: Using the isaaclab.sh executable
# note: this works for both the bundled python and the virtual environment
./isaaclab.sh -p source/standalone/tutorials/00_sim/create_empty.py

# Option 2: Using python in your virtual environment
python source/standalone/tutorials/00_sim/create_empty.py

The above command should launch the simulator and display a window with a black ground plane. You can exit the script by pressing Ctrl+C on your terminal. On Windows machines, please terminate the process from Command Prompt using Ctrl+Break or Ctrl+fn+B.