SG-Lib 2027 — moving to Python
This page describes the direction for 2027, not a download. The current release is SG-Lib 5.6 (2026), a MATLAB toolbox — see Latest Release.
Three statements about the next generation:
- SG-Lib 2027 will be based on Python.
- It will remain usable from MATLAB.
- MATLAB code written in Python will look like the MATLAB code of today’s SG-Lib.
Why Python from 2027 on
Developing and using the SG-Lib in Python rather than in MATLAB makes it possible to:
- choose the package release freely and independently of the MATLAB release, and adopt the newest and least buggy version immediately;
- know the package developers and contact them directly when serious bugs have to be fixed, and be informed about ongoing changes;
- integrate further packages quickly and directly, from many different developers — preferably AI networks;
- better understand, and prepare for, the coming changes brought by the agentic AI developer scene;
- choose the IDE freely (Spyder, very similar to MATLAB R2024b, or Visual Studio, or any other Python IDE);
- stay independent of an “AI agent” product that is statically integrated into an IDE and may not keep up with the speed of AI development;
- use agentic AI (Claude, ChatGPT) much better through transparent interfaces such as
curl, which allow the most recent AI API versions to be used directly; - develop processes with drastically reduced memory demand for mechanism design and everyday automation, and keep many parallel tasks alive on one machine;
- use the installed Python environment (venv) independently of the MATLAB version (3.12 for R2024b, for example);
- let AI agents such as Claude or ChatGPT use the code far more directly in everyday work;
- let AI agents such as Claude or ChatGPT implement, verify and validate new code far more directly.
The same part in both worlds
SGreadSTL + SGplotalpha, today's SG-Lib 5.6.
sgpyfigure, driven from the same MATLAB-style code.The part is a 3D-printed finger of a JACO robot hand (64 199 facets). Same geometry, same point of view — one rendered by MATLAB, one by the Python window that will carry SG-Lib 2027.
What this means for memory
The real difference is architectural. MATLAB is one process: JVM, toolboxes, graphics and workspace all together — about 1.5 GB before the first computation. The Python world is two processes: a small compute process plus a separate window. The window can be closed and restarted without losing the workspace; in MATLAB both hang on the same process.
| Process | Resident memory |
|---|---|
| Python, bare interpreter | 9 MB |
| Python with the MATLAB core and the SG-Lib functions | 70 MB |
| … with the test geometry loaded | 201 MB |
| Python graphics window with that geometry | 518 MB |
| Python total: computing + window | 719 MB |
| MATLAB, freshly started, headless | 1 473 MB |
| MATLAB desktop with graphics | 4 490 MB |
In practice: five parallel MATLAB pool workers cost about 8.7 GB today. Five Python compute processes cost about 350 MB — and they share one window.
Measured on 2026-10-27 with MATLAB R2024b on a Mac Studio (M4 Max, 128 GB, macOS 15.8.1); test geometry a 3D-printed JACO finger, 64 199 facets. Resident set size as reported by the operating system.