Installing and configuring Spyder

2.2. Installing and configuring Spyder#

Spyder is a general-purpose programming environment for scientific applications, and it suits biomechanical data processing very well. Therefore, this is the programming environment that we recommend in this guide. Here is how to install and configure it to enhance your experience with interactive data processing.

Fig. 2.1 The Scientific Python Development Environment (Spyder)#

2.2.1. Installation#

Download and install Spyder from its website: https://www.spyder-ide.org

2.2.2. Configuration#

2.2.2.1. Selecting your Python installation#

In section Installing Python and Kinetics Toolkit, we created a ktk conda environment. We now need to configure Spyder to use this environment, as shown in Fig. 2.2.

  • Go to Spyder’s preferences

  • Navigate to the Python interpreter item

  • Check “Use the following interpreter”

  • Click the “open” button, navigate to the folder “miniconda3/envs/ktk/bin”, and select “python”.

Fig. 2.2 Selecting the correct Python installation in Spyder#

2.2.2.2. Interactive Matplotlib figures#

To pan and zoom plots, or to use Kinetics Toolkit’s interactive functions (e.g., editing events, visualizing 3D points), you must use an interactive frontend for Matplotlib. Follow these steps to configure Spyder for interactive graphics, as shown in Fig. 2.3.

  • Go to Spyder’s preferences

  • Navigate to the IPython console item

  • Navigate to the Graphics pane.

  • In the Graphics backend box, select Qt5.

Fig. 2.3 Enabling interactive graphics in Spyder#

Note

If you use an IPython-based console other than Spyder’s, or you do not want to change this Spyder configuration, you can enable interactive graphics temporarily by typing:

%matplotlib qt5

Important

It is recommended to restart Spyder after changing all these settings.