Basic Virtual Ecosystem model usage

Installing the Virtual Ecosystem model

For most users the best way to make use of the Virtual Ecosystem package is to install it via pip. It should be noted, however, that this isn’t currently possible.

Developer installation should be carried out using poetry. This is achieved by creating a local copy of the Virtual Ecosystem git repository. The package is then installed by calling navigating to the repository and calling:

poetry install

This will install the model and all its dependencies. The model entry points (e.g. ve_run) can then be made use of by calling poetry run {name_of_entrypoint}, or by entering a poetry shell (by calling poetry shell). When actively developing it is generally better to be within a poetry shell, as this ensures that you have command line access to all relevant dependencies.

Running an example Virtual Ecosystem simulation

Some example data is included with Virtual Ecosystem to provide an introduction to the file formats and configuration. To try Virtual Ecosystem using this example data, you first need to install the data to a location of your choice. The command below will create the ve_example directory at the location you choose and install all of the configuration and data files to run a model.

ve_run --install-example /path/

You can then run the model itself:

ve_run /path/ve_example/config \ 
    --outpath /path/ve_example/config/out \ 
    --logfile /path/ve_example/out/ve_example.log

Once you want to start digging into the structure of the model and inputs, the example data pages provides a detailed description of the contents of the ve_example directory.