IMOD Download Page

IMOD is free. We do however request a few things from you to help with the IMOD development.

1. Register with us and help us continue work on this project. The information you give will only be used to help us continue to get funding.
2. Join the IMOD mailing list to get notifications about new releases and trainings, or the IMOD discussion list, where many questions are raised and answered. These lists also help us keep track of the interest in IMOD.
3. Report bugs so we can fix them and give us feedback on your experiences with IMOD so future versions will contain the features you need.
   
4. If you publish work using IMOD, please reference us. The citation is: Kremer J.R., Mastronarde, D.N., and McIntosh, J.R. (1996) Computer visualization of three-dimensional image data using IMOD. J. Struct. Biol. 116:71-76.
   For tomographic reconstruction, see also: Mastronarde, D.N. (1997) Dual-axis tomography: an approach with alignment methods that preserve resolution. J. Struct. Biol. 120:343-352.
   as well as: Mastronarde, D.N. and Held, S.R. (2017) Automated tilt series alignment and tomographic reconstruction in IMOD. J. Struct. Biol. 197:102-113.

Latest Stable Release Packages for:   Linux   -   Mac   -   Windows
Installing on Ubuntu and Debian Linux
IMOD and SELinux
Java for Running Etomo
Cygwin for Using IMOD under Windows
Python and Psutil for Using Windows IMOD without Cygwin
Installation Notes
Extra Packages
Alpha and Beta Development Versions of IMOD (IMOD 4.10.x)
Package Archive - Older Versions of IMOD

If are not using an NVIDIA card for GPU computing, just pick the package with the lowest CUDA version, since it will be smaller.

Latest Stable Release Packages - Linux

If you have a 64-bit version of a recent operating system, 32-bit versions of IMOD will not work and you must use a 64-bit version.

To use a GPU for computing, see IMOD Guide for more details about which packages work with which NVIDIA driver versions and operating system versions.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 64-bit - CUDA 6: Download IMOD 4.9.4 for 64-bit systems (built under RHEL6, should work for Fedora Core 12 onward, and other current Linux versions including Ubuntu). This package is built with CUDA 6.0 and requires drivers with version 331 or higher.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 64-bit - CUDA 8: Download IMOD 4.9.4 for 64-bit systems (built under RHEL6, should work on current Linux versions including Ubuntu). This package is built with CUDA 8.0 and requires drivers that support CUDA 8 (version 361 or higher). It should be used for Pascal-based NVIDIA cards (GeForce 1000 or Quadro P series).

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 64-bit: Download IMOD 4.9.4 for 64-bit systems (built under Centos 7). This may be the best package to install for RHEL7 and recent Fedora, but should not be used for Ubuntu. This package is built with CUDA 6.5, not 6.0. If your drivers only support CUDA 6.0 (e.g., version 340), use the RHEL6 CUDA 6 package. If you have a Pascal-based card, use the RHEL6 CUDA 8 package.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 64-bit: Download IMOD 4.9.4 for 64-bit systems (built under RHEL5, should work for Fedora Core 6 onward, Suse 10.3, and other somewhat older Linux versions). This package is built with CUDA 3.0.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 32-bit: Download IMOD 4.9.4 for 32-bit systems (built under RHEL5, should work for Fedora Core 6 onward and Suse 10.3).

Latest Stable Release Packages - Mac

These packages of IMOD 4.9 run only under 64-bit systems with Intel processors. If you want to use a GPU for computing tomograms, the package built with CUDA 6 should be used if you have CUDA 6 drivers; the package built with CUDA 8 should be used if you have CUDA 8 drivers.

The file that you download cannot be clicked on to install it; see the IMOD Guide for instructions on running it at the command line.

Mac OS X 10.11 - 10.12: Download IMOD 4.9.4 for Mac OS X 10.11 - 10.12. This package was built on 10.12 compatibly with 10.11 and with CUDA version 8. It was replaced on July 3 with a version where 3dmod can load its plugins.

Mac OS X 10.8 - 10.10: Download IMOD 4.9.4 for Mac OS X 10.8 - 10.10. This package was built on 10.8 with CUDA version 6.

Mac OS X 10.8 - 10.10: Download IMOD 4.9.4 for Mac OS X 10.8 - 10.10. This package was built on 10.8 with CUDA version 4; it should also work on 10.7.

Latest Stable Release Packages - Windows

These packages work on all versions of Windows from Windows 2000 through Windows 10. The 64-bit packages will not work with 32-bit Windows. You need to have either Cygwin or Python installed to install IMOD; see below. A package built with CUDA 6 should be used if you have drivers that support CUDA 6; the package built with CUDA 8 should should be used if you have drivers that support CUDA 8.

Windows 64-bit with CUDA 8.0: Download clickable installer or command-line self-installing file of IMOD 4.9.4 for 64-bit Windows versions, built with CUDA 8.0, and should be used if you have a Pascal-based NVIDIA card (GeForce 1000 or Quadro P series).

Windows 64-bit with CUDA 6.5: Download clickable installer or command-line self-installing file of IMOD 4.9.4 for 64-bit Windows versions, built with CUDA 6.5, and should be used instead of a lower CUDA version if you have drivers supporting CUDA 6.

Windows 64-bit with CUDA 4.1: Download clickable installer or command-line self-installing file of IMOD 4.9.4 for 64-bit Windows versions, built with CUDA 4.1.

Windows 64-bit with CUDA 3.0: Download clickable installer or command-line self-installing file of IMOD 4.9.4 for 64-bit Windows versions, built with CUDA 3.0. Use these packages if you want to use the GPU and cannot upgrade your NVIDIA drivers to the required level to use a package built with a higher CUDA version.

Windows 32-bit: Download clickable installer or command-line self-installing file of IMOD 4.9.4 for Microsoft Windows. These packages are built with CUDA 3.0.

Installing on Ubuntu and Debian Linux

A few steps are different when installing on Ubuntu, and these are described at various places in the installation instructions in the IMOD Guide. In essence:

• You should be able to install without any special options on Ubuntu; use the -debian option for a Debian system.
  
• You should not need to install Qt; it is included in the IMOD package. You should not need to install gfortran.
  
• You should use an RHEL6 package for newer Ubuntu versions, or an RHEL6 or RHEL5 package for older Ubuntu versions. You must use a 64-bit package for 64-bit systems.
  
• At least on older Ubuntu systems, you should disable Compiz; 3dmod and Etomo will behave poorly with it on.
  
• On newer systems, you will need to install version 6.2 of the JPEG libraries.

IMOD and SELinux

If SELinux is enabled, the IMOD installation script will attempt to change the security context of the IMOD libraries if appropriate. If problems still occur with SELinux, please report them. The sign of trouble with SELinux is a message "cannot restore segment prot after reloc: Permission denied" when trying to run an IMOD program. To disable SELinux, change /etc/selinux/config so that it says SELINUX=disabled.

Java for Running Etomo

You must have a Java run-time environment (JRE) installed to run the Etomo interface for building tomograms. See the IMOD Guide for details about whether the Java available in your version of Linux will work with Etomo. Java 1.6 or later is required for IMOD 4.9 If you need to install Java, get the latest Java Run-time Environment from the Java download site. 

Cygwin for Using IMOD under Windows

For complete IMOD functionality under Windows, you need to install either the Cygwin toolkit or Python (see next section). To simplify the process of installing Cygwin, we provide both a Cygwin installer for the easiest possible initial installation, and also a Cygwin package that you can install from. You can also use the latter package to upgrade from an earlier package that we provided. When you upgrade, you may see an alarming warning about mount point changes; this is not relevant for typical usage of Cygwin. Download links are in this table; you must use the older Cygwin for Windows XP, and the newer one for Windows 10. These packages are from after the Shellshock bug in bash was fixed. To satisfy the terms of the Cygwin open source license, we also provide the source code matching the binaries in our package.

IMOD 4.9 should work reliably with the current version available from Cygwin, even on 64-bit systems. However, the Python executable in current versions is not named python.exe, which is problematic. If you reinstall IMOD after upgrading Cygwin, the IMOD installer will take care of this; otherwise, see the IMOD guide.

Python and Psutil for Using Windows IMOD without Cygwin

To use IMOD fully without Cygwin on Windows, you need to install Python and a module called psutil built for the same version of Python. You do not need these packages if you are using Cygwin. Some packages are provided here:

• 32-bit Python 2.7 and matching psutil
• 64-bit Python 2.7 and matching psutil
• 32-bit Python 3.3 and matching psutil
• 64-bit Python 3.3 and matching psutil

The IMOD installer in IMOD 4.7 and beta releases through IMOD 4.8.48 were not be able to find 32-bit Python on 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Python on 64-bit Windows 8 or 10; so use only a 64-bit Python on 64-bit Windows 7, or a 32-bit Python on 64-bit Windows 8 or 10. These installers also were not able to find Python 3.5. These restrictions no longer apply for IMOD 4.9.

See the IMOD guide for further instructions. The short version: install Python first and install for all users; to install psutil on Windows Vista/7/8/10, you need to right-click and "Run as Administrator".

Installation Notes

The download packages ending in .sh or .csh have been archived with tar, compressed with gzip, and packed with a sh or C shell script that will install or upgrade IMOD in the recommended location. They must be run as scripts at the command line and cannot be installed by clicking on them. The Windows installer packages ending in .exe can be run by clicking on them. For instructions on unpacking, installing and setting up the IMOD environment, see the IMOD User's guide.

All packages for Linux now contain a copy of the Qt library that will be used when running IMOD. It is not placed on the LD_LIBRARY_PATH so it will not interfere with the use of the Qt library on the system or in other packages.

• Sample 3D data set.
• Etomo tutorial data set. (Binned version used in the tutorial document).
• Unbinned tutorial data set, used in our tutorial videos at YouTube
• Join tutorial data set for current IMOD versions.
• Join tutorial data set used for an example in IMOD versions below 3.11.
• Sample data set for the tutorial on reconstructing a cryotomogram with fiducials.
• Sample data set for the tutorial on reconstructing a frozen-hydrated section with patch tracking.
• Sample tomogram for the tutorial on
• Sample K2 data set for the tutorial on CTF correction.
• Sample DE-12 data set for the tutorial on CTF correction.
• Sample UltraScan data set for the tutorials on CTF correction and reconstructing with SIRT.
• Sample tomogram for the tutorial on filtering with Nonlinear Anisotropic Diffusion (NAD).
• IMOD documentation in its original HTML form, for viewing in web browsers. As of IMOD 4.5, the documentation distributed with the package is in a compressed HTML file readable only by Qt Assistant. This program is invoked with imodhelp at the command line, or from the help facilities of Etomo, 3dmod, etc.
• A copy of 3dmod and associated files that can be run on Windows without installing IMOD or Cygwin is available here. The package unpacks to C:\Program Files\3dmod and a shortcut can be set up to run 3dmod from there.

This site also contains development versions of IMOD that we have released to our local users. See the README file or the list of changes for details. To download a file, right click on it and then select "Save Link as..." or "Save Target as...". Double-clicking will load it into your browser.

Click here for the beta versions, which have generally been running for at least a few days. The alpha subdirectory has the packages when they are first released.

We also make our nightly builds from the current source available. There will often be bugs in these packages, so generally you should not use one unless you have been told to try it. Here they are.

If you use a development version, the best source of documentation is in the package itself, available through the imodhelp command. Click here to access all documentation in the latest development version, updated nightly.

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5/Fedora Core 6
• Fedora Core 4
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4/Fedora Core 2
• Red Hat Linux 9.0
• Microsoft Windows
• Mac OS X

Last comprehensive update, January 24, 2017.