Getting Started
This section outlines what you need to know before getting started with ProtoTwn.
Software Requirements
You only need a web browser to run ProtoTwin. Most modern web browsers are compatible, however some older or more restricted browsers may not be. It is important to check that your browser supports Shared Array Buffer, WebGL 2.0 and Offscreen Canvas.
We recommend using an up-to-date version of Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Firefox. Safari is not currently supported.
Hardware Requirements
Real-time simulation is computationally demanding. Our architecture is designed to leverage the full capabilities of modern hardware. Please ensure that your computer meets or exceeds the recommended minimum specification below:
| PC (Windows / Linux) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Good | Best | |
| Processor | Intel i7 4-Core | Intel i7 8-Core | Intel i9 24-Core |
| Graphics Card | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 |
| Memory | 8GB RAM | 16GB RAM | 32GB RAM |
| Apple Mac | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Good | Best | |
| Processor | Apple M4 | Apple M4 Pro | Apple M4 Max |
| Memory | 16GB RAM | 24GB RAM | 32GB RAM |
Faster hardware will allow you to simulate larger models in real-time. ProtoTwin uses a minimum of 3 threads. The first thread is dedicated to running the user interface. The second and third are dedicated to rendering and simulation respectively. For models that contains physics, ProtoTwin will spawn up several additional threads for physics computations. Models containing thousands of rigid bodies will benefit more from processors with many cores.
It is possible to run ProtoTwin on laptops with integrated GPUs, but the performance will be significantly lower. Try setting the Render Quality under Graphics Settings to Low and/or the Render Scale to 50% in order to improve rendering performance.
All brands of CPUs and GPUs are supported, including Intel, AMD and ARM processors. ProtoTwin Simulate runs on all major operating systems, including Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. ProtoTwin Connect supports Windows (x64 and arm64), MacOS (apple silicon) and Linux (x64).
Software Requirements
You only need a web browser to run ProtoTwin. Most modern web browsers are compatible, however some older or more restricted browsers may not be. It is important to check that your browser supports Shared Array Buffer, WebGL 2.0 and Offscreen Canvas.
We recommend using an up-to-date version of Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Firefox. Safari is not currently supported.
Creating an Account
You must create an account to use any of our software products. You can sign up with Google, Microsoft or Onshape. Alternatively, you can sign up with any valid email address.
Launching
After creating an account, you may launch the ProtoTwin Motion or Simulate applications through the button in the account page. Both Motion and Simulate run directly inside your web browser, without requiring any dependencies or software to be downloaded.
- To render high-quality videos, you can install ProtoTwin Radiant.
- To connect to physical PLCs, or co-simulation using our Python client for machine learning, you will need to install ProtoTwin Connect.
The installers for Radiant and Connect can both be downloaded through the account page.