Installing Z3 + Python on Windows

Question

I am having some hard time getting the Z3 Python frontend to work on Windows 7 with Z3 version 4.3.0 from codeplex. The older version 4.1.2 that was distributed as an MSI file

Answer 1

Visual Studio Express should be enough to compile Z3 and is available for free from Microsoft, here. However, it's not a requirement that Z3 be compiled from scratch to use Z3Py.

Starting with version 4.3.0, the DLL is now called libz3.dll and I just verified that it is indeed included in the download from Codeplex and it executes fine when I add it to PYTHONPATH. I can imagine that what went wrong in your case is that you added the directory C:...\z3-4.3.0-x86 to PYTHONPATH, while it is necessary that C:...\z3-4.3.0-x86\bin be added (note the \bin in the end).