Installation

realvirtual CONNECT is a single Windows executable. A normal installation requires no installer, service registration or admin rights. Starting it places an icon in the system tray and opens one listener on port 5100. This serves the REST API, the WebSocket signal channel and the MCP endpoint. The public download includes no viewer. Open the HMI at web.realvirtual.io and connect it to the gateway there. Builds delivered with an embedded project also serve their HMI on that port.

Video walkthrough

This 2.5-minute tutorial shows the whole setup, from the download to the free license.

Requirements


Operating system	Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit
Runtime	None — the published build is self-contained
Network	The PC must reach the controller (PLC, robot controller, MQTT broker)
Port	5100, free on the local machine

Place the gateway on a PC inside the machine network — an IPC, an edge PC or an engineering laptop. The browser that shows the HMI can be the same PC or any other device in the network.

Download and first start

Download the gateway from web.realvirtual.io/download/realvirtual-Connect.exe - or use the Download realvirtual CONNECT button that the CONNECT panel of any realvirtual viewer shows while it has no gateway to talk to. Both deliver the same current build.
Start it where it is, or move it to a writable folder first. The program directory must be writable for self-update. Accepting the Start-menu entry in step 4 places the executable in a writable folder.
Windows SmartScreen may ask for a confirmation on first run - the executable is code-signed by realvirtual GmbH, which the dialog shows under More info.
A window reports that the gateway is running and where its data goes. Close it, or let it add a Start-menu entry first.
A tray icon appears. Open web.realvirtual.io on the same PC, click realvirtual CONNECT in the left sidebar and connect to http://localhost:5100. (A build with an embedded project opens its own HMI through Open realvirtual WEB in the tray instead.)
Register once to activate the free tier — the steps are in free registration. Until then the gateway answers every request with LICENSE_REQUIRED.

The first-start window

The first-start window: viewer address, data folder and the Start-menu question

This window appears once on a new installation. It shows what is running, how to reach it, and where its data goes.

CONNECT is portable. It installs nothing, registers no service and leaves nothing behind except its data folder. The tray icon is where you stop it again.

The window asks whether to add a Start-menu entry. Accepting it copies the executable to %LOCALAPPDATA%\realvirtual\CONNECT\realvirtual-Connect.exe and links to that copy. The entry therefore keeps working after you clear your Downloads folder. The file you started stays where it is; nothing is moved. Not now skips the entry entirely and changes nothing on disk.

The tray icon displays local status and is the only place with process-level switches. The menu lists status lines first, then actions. Green dots mean running, amber means a state needs attention, and grey means off or idle.

The picture shows a fresh installation on the free tier, with no model, interface or signals configured. Remote access is blocked because no API key is set, and AI diagnosis is off until an LLM is configured.

Status lines

Entry	What it shows
realvirtual CONNECT v…	Version and build of this executable. Quote it in support requests
CONNECT gateway	Port and running state
Remote access	Appears only while the gateway is reachable from other machines with no API key configured — those clients are refused. Click it for the full explanation, and see remote access
realvirtual WEB	Where the HMI comes from — Gateway only (no viewer) on the public download, where the HMI is web.realvirtual.io; Delivered (embedded in this application) on a build with an embedded project; or a separately running dev server. Its submenu holds the data folder and, in development, the dev-server controls — see viewer delivery
Published models	The folder the gateway serves models from. Click to open it
Viewer	The address the HMI is reachable at. Click to open it
MCP server	Endpoint state, tool count, write access and connected MCP clients — see AI clients
AI Diagnosis	Index state, or the reason it is off — see AI diagnosis
License	Current tier and, on the free tier, how many of the allowed signals are in use — see licensing
Signals / Clients	How many signals the gateway serves and how many browsers are connected. This Clients count means viewers, not MCP clients

Actions

Entry	What it does
Open realvirtual WEB	Opens the HMI in the default browser
Open Health Page	Opens the gateway’s status response for a quick check when something looks wrong
Open Documentation	Opens this documentation in the default browser
Getting Started.	Reopens the first-start window, including the Start-menu entry
Restart CONNECT	Restarts the gateway process, for example after a startup-only setting was changed. It takes everything in this executable with it; to restart only a dev server, use the realvirtual entry
Profile	Switches between saved configuration profiles (saved in the viewer’s CONNECT panel). Switching hot-reloads the interfaces - the gateway is not restarted
Exit	Closes the gateway. In development mode the caption names what goes with it: a dev server CONNECT started is stopped too, while one that was already running when CONNECT started keeps running

Where CONNECT stores things

What	Location
Interfaces, signals and profiles	`%PROGRAMDATA%\realvirtual\CONNECT\connect-config.json`
Models, viewer settings, converted CAD, history state	`%LOCALAPPDATA%\realvirtual\CONNECT\data` (`models/`, `settings.json`)
The activated license	`%PROGRAMDATA%\realvirtual\CONNECT` — machine-global, it never follows a workspace
Process settings — port, API key, allowed origins	`appsettings.json` next to the executable

The tray menu shows both folders: Published models opens the model folder, and the data root sits in the submenu of the realvirtual WEB line.

Configuration is written atomically with a .bak backup. Changes take effect immediately: the affected interface restarts on its own, the gateway does not.

Process settings

appsettings.json holds the settings that are read at startup:

{
  "Urls": "http://0.0.0.0:5100",
  "AllowedOrigins": [],
  "ApiKey": "",
  "Logging": { "LogLevel": { "Default": "Information" } }
}

Key	Purpose
`Urls`	Listen address. The default binds all network adapters, so the gateway is reachable from other machines — read remote access before leaving it that way
`AllowedOrigins`	Additional browser origins allowed to call the gateway, for example your own dashboard. Pages on `localhost` and pages the gateway serves itself are always allowed, and so are realvirtual’s own origins (`https://web.realvirtual.io`, `https://realvirtual.io`, `https://www.realvirtual.io`) are always allowed, without an entry — the hosted viewer and the public demo connect out of the box. The AI Bridge of a hosted page still asks for a one-time pairing in the tray
`ApiKey`	Required from any caller that is not on the local machine. Empty disables the key

Running two gateways on one PC

Port 5100 is part of the client contract: .mcp.json, the HMI, the REST API and the signal channel all name it. CONNECT therefore refuses to start on a taken port instead of silently moving to another one. To run a second gateway deliberately, set the environment variable REALVIRTUAL_CONNECT_PORT for that instance and point its clients at the same port — in the viewer with ?mcpPort=<port> in the address, in .mcp.json with the matching URL. The full list of environment variables is in the configuration file reference.

Autostart

To start the gateway with Windows, place a shortcut to the executable in the startup folder — press Win+R and enter shell:startup. CONNECT starts into the tray and reconnects its configured interfaces automatically.

Uninstalling

Delete the executable. To remove everything else as well, delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\realvirtual\CONNECT\ (data, and the copy of the executable if you accepted the Start-menu entry), %PROGRAMDATA%\realvirtual\CONNECT\ (configuration and license) and the realvirtual group in the Start menu. Nothing is written to the registry, and no service is left behind.