# Announcing rubin\_sim **URL:** \ **Category:** Survey Strategy\ **Tags:** lsst\_sims, rubin\_sim\ **Created:** [September 27, 2021, 11:12pm UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/announcing-rubin-sim/5881 "2021-09-27T23:12:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ljones](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/www.rubin.community/ljones/32/1804_2.png) [@ljones](https://www.rubin.community/u/ljones)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 11:12pm UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/announcing-rubin-sim/5881/1 "2021-09-27T23:12:20Z")
Hi simulations and survey strategists! We announced this at the PCW, and it’s been available for a little while, but here is a more ‘formal’(?) announcement of our switch from lsst\_sims software to [rubin\_sim](https://github.com/lsst/rubin_sim)! The rubin\_sim package replaces the lsst\_sims packages. We have dropped support for the lsst\_sims packages (ie. sims\_maf, sims\_featureScheduler, sims\_photUtils, sims\_utils, sims\_catalogs), and are now deploying almost all of the same functionality in rubin\_sim, a single python package which is independent of the LSST DM software stack (i.e. you do not need to use eups to set up the software, and you don’t need to install all of the DM requirements). There were a range of reasons for this move, but the end result we feel is that rubin\_sim is easier for us to maintain and easier for you to install and use. The code and installation instructions can be found here: [https://github.com/lsst/rubin\_sim](https://github.com/lsst/rubin_sim) Much of what you’ll find in rubin\_sim is what you will have been familiar with before: sims\_maf has become rubin\_sim.maf sims\_photUtils has become rubin\_sim.photUtils sims\_utils has become rubin\_sim.utils sims\_skybrightness has become rubin\_sim.skybrightness sims\_skybrightness pre has become rubin\_sim.skybrightness\_pre sims\_featureScheduler has become rubin\_sim.scheduler The APIs within each package are generally the same as they were previously. Modifying imports in your code from `import lsst.sims.maf.slicers as slicers` to `import rubin_sim.maf.slicers as slicers` (and so on) should let the remainder of your code work without additional needs for modification. A few things _are_ different. We have dropped support for sims\_catalogs and sims\_catUtils, and there are no corresponding rubin\_sim packages. (this is because DESC were already moving away from use of these packages and we - as the Survey Strategy Team - are not scoped for their support). We have also changed how we are evaluating if a given point on the sky falls into the camera focal plane - we now have an [LsstCameraFootprint](https://rubin-sim.lsst.io/api/rubin_sim.utils.LsstCameraFootprint.html#rubin_sim.utils.LsstCameraFootprint) class which uses an approximation of the LSST focal plane map, instead of the full mapping accessed through lsst.afw.cameraGeom – this allows us to drop the requirements on the remainder of the LSST DM stack, so that rubin\_sim can be installed independently. Another difference is in how to download the data files required to use rubin\_sim: these are now downloaded with the [rs\_download\_data](https://github.com/lsst/rubin_sim/blob/main/bin/rs_download_data) script, which you run after installing rubin\_sim. The download location can be any directory you choose; the version of the downloaded data files is appropriate for the running version of rubin\_sim. We still welcome metrics submitted to MAF; these should now be submitted to rubin\_sim – there is a rubin\_sim/maf/mafContrib directory which would be a great place to write metrics for a PR. We also welcome PRs for other areas within rubin\_sim! ---
**Author:** ![jgizis](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/www.rubin.community/jgizis/32/419_2.png) [@jgizis](https://www.rubin.community/u/jgizis)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 12:28am UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/announcing-rubin-sim/5881/2 "2021-09-28T00:28:14Z")
This is great! I will probably still use NOIRLab Astro Data Lab because I don’t want to download all the sims! Will that be supported still, or rather, do we still start the Jupyter notebook the same way to load the LSST information? ---
**Author:** ![willclarkson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/www.rubin.community/willclarkson/32/2345_2.png) [@willclarkson](https://www.rubin.community/u/willclarkson)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 4:37pm UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/announcing-rubin-sim/5881/3 "2021-09-28T16:37:41Z")
Related question: is rubin\_sim being pushed to NOIRLab’s Astro Data Lab and the LSST Sciserver environment? Or do the people that run those environments need to pull and install rubin\_sims? People who have been using lsst\_sims on those platforms are going to need access to rubin\_sims on those platforms. Thanks!! cc @gtrichards and @knutago ---
**Author:** ![ljones](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/www.rubin.community/ljones/32/1804_2.png) [@ljones](https://www.rubin.community/u/ljones)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 5:16pm UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/announcing-rubin-sim/5881/4 "2021-09-28T17:16:23Z")
I have asked NOIRLab about updating to rubin\_sim. Thank you for reminding me to ask about sciserver too. The project doesn’t run either of these directly, so we can’t update them or push to those environment – they will have to be updated by the groups running them, but hopefully it will be an easy update. One thing to note regarding the simulations: in the next month we will be releasing the v2.0 simulations, which will be a smaller set than the 1.5-1.7.1 simulations. We expect that the v2.0 set will be what most people will use for evaluations going forward, although if there are specific questions that only are addressed in the 1.x families, please let us know … we’re narrowing down the survey strategy options, so _not_ looking to add a large number of simulations, but if there is something critical to evaluate on the new footprint, etc., we can do that. Please see the SCOC draft report for a list of the types of survey strategy options under consideration for v2.0 - [https://pstn-053.lsst.io](https://pstn-053.lsst.io) ---
**Author:** ![ljones](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/www.rubin.community/ljones/32/1804_2.png) [@ljones](https://www.rubin.community/u/ljones)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 1:14am UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/announcing-rubin-sim/5881/5 "2021-10-26T01:14:19Z")
DataLab has a kernel running rubin\_sim available! If you launch a Jupyter notebook with the “'LSST-2021.10.13 Py3” kernel, you will get an up-to-date rubin\_sim installation. The 1.x series opsim outputs are still available on /sims\_maf. ---
**Author:** ![ljones](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/www.rubin.community/ljones/32/1804_2.png) [@ljones](https://www.rubin.community/u/ljones)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 8:32pm UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/announcing-rubin-sim/5881/6 "2021-10-27T20:32:58Z")
I’d also like to add that we now have online documentation at [rubin-sim.lsst.io](https://rubin-sim.lsst.io) and the installation instructions are available in the README on the [rubin\_sim GitHub repo](https://github.com/lsst/rubin_sim)