Installing Python 2.7.9 for X-Plane and "SIDS STARS GUI" on Windows

python279-win-xplane.md

Installing Python 2.7.9 for X-Plane and "SIDS STARS GUI" on Windows

Installing the dependencies that this script needs can be a bit of a pain. Additionally, X-Plane (from my experience) only works well together with one particular Python version, 2.7.9. So here's what you need to do:

1. Go to: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44266 and download and install this compiler for Python.

2. Download Python 2.7.9 64bit from https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-279/ and make sure to pick the "Windows x86-64 MSI installer" for the 64 bit version.

   Run the installer you just downloaded to install Python. Most defaults are fine, you can choose a different drive if you really want to. Python isn't very large though, so your system drive is probably just fine.

   When installing you are presented with the option to "customise" the installation. Scroll to the bottom and choose "Will be installed on local hard drive" for the "Add python.exe to PATH" option. This'll make your life a lot easier as there will be less to type, where you can just type python instead of e.g. C:\Python27\python.exe or pip instead of C:\Python27\Scripts\pip.exe.

   

3. We need some packages for Python which have to be installed by downloading them and pointing the installer to them. This site can be a bit slow, so you'll start downloading these files while we continue with other things.

   Go to http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#numpy and click on and download numpy‑1.11.3+mkl‑cp27‑cp27m‑win_amd64.whl.

   Go to http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#scipy and click on and download scipy‑0.19.0‑cp27‑cp27m‑win_amd64.whl.

   Go to http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#basemap and click on and download basemap‑1.1.0‑cp27‑cp27m‑win_amd64.whl.

   Make sure you know where these files are being downloaded to. Normally that would be C:\Users\Yourusername\Downloads, unless you chose a different path.

4. We need to update pip (the python package management tool) or not all the steps below will work correctly. Open a "Windows Command Processor", normally accessed by going to the start menu, go to "Run" and then type cmd.exe. You do not need to run the command prompt as an administrator.

   Now in the command prompt you can type python if you want to make sure it is installed correctly and it was added to the path. Type exit() and hit enter to get out of this again.

   Type python -m pip install --upgrade pip to update pip itself:

   

5. Install some packages that are easy to install:

   Still in your command prompt, type pip install numpy regex. You should see something like this:

   

6. matplotlib should also install correctly at this point:

   Type pip install matplotlib:

   

7. Now we can install the 3 packages we downloaded earlier.

   You'll need to provide the path to where you downloaded the files to.

   Type pip install "C:\Where\The\File\Was\Saved\Filename.whl" for each of these three files:

   

8. One more package to install now, this is another "easy" one as everyone we need is installed now.

   Type pip install nvector (I typed a few more package names just to make sure they were installed):

   

9. We're done. Download the sids+starsGUI_win.py Python script from http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/38286-starssidsgui/ and save it to your X-Plane 11 folder. You should be able to doubleclick this file, which will then start the Python interpreter and after a little while (it has to read the navdata) the program should pop up.