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Installation Guide

To install the NMSM Pipeline, work through the following instructions. If you come across problems, visit the troubleshooting page or reach out on the SimTK Forum

Matlab​

The NMSM Pipeline uses Matlab for all of its functionality. Download and install Matlab R2025a or newer.

Download Matlab R2025a

The following Matlab toolboxes are required for the NMSM Pipeline to run:

  • Curve Fitting
  • Optimization
  • Parallel Computing
  • Signal Processing
  • Statistics and Machine Learning
  • Symbolic Math

NMSM Pipeline Core​

Download NMSM Core

Following the link above, click on Downloads and you will be taken to a page with 3 download options:

NMSM Pipeline (required): This is the core of the pipeline necessary to be able to run all of the tools.

NMSM Article (optional): This folder has the example application presented in the NMSM Pipeline article.

NMSM Tutorials (optional): This folder has one consolidated tutorial that takes you step by step through the entire NMSM Pipeline. Click here for more details

1) Download the primary NMSM Pipeline package.

2) Unzip nmsm-core to an easy to reach location.

3) In MATLAB, navigate to the folder where you installed nmsm-core.

4) Double click on the project file Project.prj to set up your environment. Note that you will have to double-click on this file every time you close and re-open Matlab if you want to continue using the NMSM Pipeline.

5) Minimize (but do not close) the window “Project – project”. If you close this window, you will no longer be able to access the NMSM Pipeline in your MATLAB session.

NMSM Pipeline GUI (Windows with OpenSim 4.5 only)​

  1. Navigate to nmsm-core\gui. This folder contains the org-opensim-rcnl.jar and rcnlPlugin.dll files.
  2. Copy rcnl-plugin.dll to a folder named plugins”in your OpenSim installation directory. The installation directory likely has a path like C:\OpenSim 4.5. If there is no folder named plugins, create one.
  3. Open a Powershell window in your OpenSim installation directory.
  4. Run the command opensim64 --reload PATH_TO_NMSM-CORE\gui\org-opensim-rcnl.jar. This file directory cannot have any spaces in it, and the path must be an absolute file path.
  5. Upon starting OpenSim, expand the User Plugins field under Tools, and click on rcnlPlugin.dll to load the plugin. This needs to be done every time OpenSim is opened.
  6. The NMSM Pipeline GUI tools will appear under the same Tools section.

We recommend running the NMSM Tutorials available with the NMSM Pipeline first to make sure your installation works correctly and to review how tools are used.

OpenSim​

Download OpenSim 4.5

After OpenSim is installed, configure MATLAB to work with OpenSim. Follow the instructions at Setting up your Matlab Scripting Environment. Note the additional step required if you are installing on a Windows computer.

GPOPS-II​

GPOPS-II is currently required to run Treatment Optimization.

Download GPOPS-II

1) Obtain a license and download the GPOPS-II direct collocation optimal control software from the GPOPS-II website linked above.

2) Install GPOPS-II as indicated in the GPOPS-II installation instructions.

3) Open MATLAB and navigate to your GPOPS-II folder.

4) Run the following command in the MATLAB command window: gpopsMatlabPathSetup

5) Once the script has finished updating the MATLAB path, run the following command in the MATLAB command window: gpops2License

and verify that GPOPS-II License Information outputs to your screen.

6) (Windows only) In your GPOPS-II installation, go to GPOPS-II\nlp\ipopt. There should be a file called ipopt.mexw64. Replace this file with the version of 'ipopt.mexw64' from this Github page. GPOPS-II will not work with the required versions of Matlab on Windows without this change.

7) (Mac only) If necessary, remove the quarantine attribute from the ipopt MEX file using the following steps: • Open a Terminal window. • Change directories to the ipopt folder within the GPOPS-II-Distribution folder • Run the following command: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ipopt.mexmaci64

We recommend running the NMSM Tutorials available with the NMSM Pipeline first to make sure your installation works correctly and to review how tools are used. Additionally, upon opening the NMSM Pipeline project file, a script will be ran that verifies your installation.

Once you have gone through all installation steps you can start modeling!