Skip to content

Compiling MONICA on Windows

Requirements

  • Windows 10 or newer
  • Git
  • CMake 3.22 or newer
  • VisualStudio 2022 or Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools
    • Desktop development with C++
    • MSVC compiler
    • Windows SDK
    • English language pack
  • Python, if you want to run the Python-based examples
  • NSIS, if you want to create an installer

The full Visual Studio IDE is not required. Visual Studio Build Tools is sufficient for command-line builds.

Verify the tools from PowerShell: 

git --version
cmake --version

When using Visual Studio Build Tools, run the commands from a Developer PowerShell for VS 2022, or ensure that msbuild.exe is available on PATH.

Required environment variables

The following executable directories must be available on PATH:

  • Git, for example: C:\Program Files\Git\cmd
  • CMake, for example: C:\Program Files\CMake\bin
  • MSBuild, if it is not being run from a Visual Studio Developer PowerShell

1. Clone the repositories

Create a working directory and clone MONICA and its related repositories:

mkdir C:\zalf-rpm
cd C:\zalf-rpm
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/zalf-rpm/monica.git
git clone https://github.com/zalf-rpm/monica-parameters.git
git clone https://github.com/zalf-rpm/mas-infrastructure.git

The mas-infrastructure repository is required when creating the Windows installer.

The resulting directory structure should be:

C:\zalf-rpm
├── monica
├── monica-parameters
├── mas-infrastructure
└── vcpkg

2. Install vcpkg dependencies

The required vcpkg version is stored in monica/vcpkg_tag.txt. Clone that exact version:

cd C:\zalf-rpm
git clone -b 2025.10.17 https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git

Bootstrap vcpkg:

cd C:\zalf-rpm\vcpkg
.\bootstrap-vcpkg.bat

Install the required libraries:

 .\vcpkg install zeromq:x64-windows-static
 .\vcpkg install capnproto:x64-windows-static
 .\vcpkg install libsodium:x64-windows-static
 .\vcpkg install tomlplusplus:x64-windows-static

3. Generate the Visual Studio solution

Change to the MONICA repository:

cd C:\zalf-rpm\monica

Generate the 64-bit Visual Studio 2022 solution:

.\create_solution_x64_VS17_2022.cmd

This creates the following build directory:

C:\zalf-rpm\monica\_cmake_win64

The generated solution is:

C:\zalf-rpm\monica\_cmake_win64\monica.sln

4. Build MONICA

Using Visual Studio

Open the solution:

start .\_cmake_win64\monica.sln

In Visual Studio:

  1. Select the x64 platform.
  2. Select Release or Debug.
  3. Build the solution.

For creating an installer, select Release.

Using MSBuild

Build a Release version from a Developer PowerShell:

msbuild _cmake_win64/monica.sln /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform="x64"

Alternatively, use CMake directly:

cmake --build _cmake_win64 --config Release

The Release executables are placed in:

C:\zalf-rpm\monica\_cmake_win64\Release

5. Run the local example

From the MONICA repository root:

cd C:\zalf-rpm\monica .\_cmake_win64\Release\monica-run.exe -o .\installer\Hohenfinow2\sim-min.json

If the example requires parameter files, set the parameter directory:

$env:MONICA_PARAMETERS = "C:\zalf-rpm\monica-parameters"

6. Creating a Windows installer

Prerequisites

Before creating an installer:

  • Build MONICA using the Release configuration.
  • Clone monica-parameters.
  • Clone mas-infrastructure.
  • Install NSIS.
  • Ensure the following files exist: 
    monica\_cmake_win64\Release\monica-run.exe
monica-parameters\
mas-infrastructure\src\python\services\soil\soil_io3.py

Build the installer

The repository provides a helper script:

\installer\run-installer-with-parameter.bat

Run it from the installer directory:

cd C:\zalf-rpm\monica\installer
.\run-installer-with-parameter.bat 3.4.0 213 x64

The arguments are:

run-installer-with-parameter.bat <version> <build-number> <architecture>

The generated installer is written to the installer directory.