Get Started

This section walks you through the prerequisites, build, sample data, and application settings for Kit-CAE 3.0.

Prerequisites

Hardware

• An NVIDIA RTX GPU for rendering and GPU-accelerated computation

Software

• Git: Download it from git-scm.com if needed.

• Git LFS: Install it from git-lfs.com, then run git lfs install once.

• Windows: Visual Studio 2026 (recommended), 2022, or 2019 with the Desktop development with C++ workload.

• Linux: A C++ development environment with GCC or Clang.

Clone and Build Kit-CAE

Clone the public repository:

git clone https://github.com/NVIDIA-Omniverse/kit-cae.git
cd kit-cae

Build a release configuration.

Windows:

repo.bat build -r

Linux:

./repo.sh build -r

The first build downloads dependencies, generates the Universal Scene Description (USD) schemas, and compiles the application. It may take several minutes.

Note

On Windows, if the build cannot find a compiler, open the Visual Studio Installer and confirm that Desktop development with C++ is installed.

Sample Data

The main guide and examples use one downloadable archive:

Download the Kit-CAE user guide data

Extract the archive to a convenient location. The Examples page identifies the files for each independent example.

Main Guide Dataset

The Try It sections use a steady-state external-aerodynamics simulation around a concept vehicle:

{path to}/kit_cae_user_guide_data/main_guide/auto_aero_solver_result.cgns

Field	Type	Description
Pressure	float32	Cell-associated gauge pressure
Velocity_0	float32	Streamwise velocity component
Velocity_1	float32	Lateral velocity component
Velocity_2	float32	Vertical velocity component

The mesh contains approximately 7.9 million nodes and 7.2 million polyhedral cells. Surface sections include body_Surface, front_wheels_Surface, rear_wheels_Surface, front_wheels_Seal, and rear_wheels_Seal. The dataset is a steady-state snapshot.

Launch the Application

From the kit-cae directory, launch the standard app.

Windows:

repo.bat launch -n omni.cae.kit

Linux:

./repo.sh launch -n omni.cae.kit

The first launch may pause for a minute or two while the app compiles shaders for your GPU.

Preferences

Select Edit > Preferences, then select the CAE page. Scroll through the page to see the settings contributed by the loaded CAE extensions.

CAE Visualization

• Default Operator Enabled: Run newly created operators immediately. Keep this setting enabled for general use. Disable it only when you need newly created operators to remain inactive while you configure an expensive pipeline, then restore it when you finish.

• Default Device for ‘auto’: Select the device used when an operator’s Compute Device is auto.

Bounding Box Computation

• Bounding Box Device: Select the device used to calculate dataset bounds.

• Always Use Point Bounds: Calculate bounds from points instead of cells. This can be faster for large meshes and is required for datasets without cells.

AOT Configuration Recorder

• Output Path: Set the JSON file that receives the current compiled-kernel configuration.

• Save AOT Config: Save the current recorder state to that file for later application packaging or deployment.

Note

Kit-CAE creates Z-up stages by default. If imported geometry uses another up axis, rotate the imported prim after import.