(Note: Start an issue on our Issues page if you are having troubles in building the VTK library!)
VTK provides two types of installation: binary installation which allow users to build simple applications directly using Tcl scripts and pre-compiled VTK executables, and source codes installation which enables users to build classes and applications using C++, Java, Python and Tcl. In this page we will introduce the source codes installation of VTK using CMake in multiple platforms.
Installing VTK on CCV
Installing VTK on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Installing VTK on Windows 10
VTK and CMake is already installed on CCV. All we need to do is to activate the modules by running the following commands:
module load vtk/8.1.0
module load cmake/3.8.0
Then the CMake and VTK are both good to use.
Note: Sometimes the version of those libraries may change due to CCV's package update, and you can use module avail <package> to check the available versions of a certain package.
In Ubuntu 18.04 you can use the apt-get utilities to achieve and install CMake. The command should be run under root account:
sudo apt-get install cmake
sudo apt-get install cmake-qt-gui
Following the instructions of apt-get, you can install the CMake software in your system.
You can download the VTK source code files directly in the VTK Download Page, or use the following commands:
wget https://www.vtk.org/files/release/8.1/VTK-8.1.2.tar.gz
Extract the .tar.gz files directly in the graphical user interface or in the terminal:
tar xvzf VTK-8.1.2.tar.gz -C <Your directory>
For simplicity it is recommended to use the cmake-qt-gui tools to configure the VTK compilation.
In CMake, you can specify the directories for source code and binaries. Then you should click on the "Configure" button.
Some important variables values to build VTK for this project are listed as follow:
BUILD_DOCUMENTATION: Under some systems this value may be set to true at default. This indicates that a built-in documentation will be generated when building VTK. Building the documentation requires some extra external libraries that might have not been installed in your system, so it is recommended to set this value to false.BUILD_EXAMPLESandBUILD_TESTING: These two values are set to true at default. This determines that some example and testing executables will be built. This might be useful for VTK learners, but you can set it to false for saving storage space if you only need to compile and run a VTK application.BUILD_SHARED_LIBS: Shared libraries will be built if you set this value to true. In order cases, static libraries will be built, and the VTK applications will be self-contained.VTK_Group_Qt: This value should be set as false since the graphical user interface based on Qt is not supported by our project in Linux.
Once you configured all the variables, you can click on the "Configure" button until no variables are marked as red. Then you should click "Generate" button to generate the Unix makefiles.
Under the directory you specify for the binaries, simply run:
make
And the VTK should compile. You should run make install to copy all the files you need to compile and run VTK in to a directory that other users can share.
For configuring VTK on Windows 10, please make sure you have already followed the GUI Set Up Guide and installed Qt in your computer. Visual Studio 2017 is also required as the generator to build the VTK library.
A recommended method to obtain CMake in Windows 10 is downloading the .msi installer file from the CMake Download Page. You can choose a preferred version of CMake for your system in the website. The CMake version we used to compile our project on Windows is 3.12.4.
It is recommended that VTK source code files should be downloaded directly in the VTK Download Page. You can unzip the .zip file and obtain the source code.
You can launch the CMake(cmake-gui) application and configure the VTK compilation.
In CMake, you can specify the directories for source code and binaries. Then you should click on the "Configure" button.
Some important variables values to build VTK for this project are listed as follow:
BUILD_DOCUMENTATION: Under some systems this value may be set to true at default. This indicates that a built-in documentation will be generated when building VTK. Building the documentation requires some extra external libraries that might have not been installed in your system, so it is recommended to set this value to false.BUILD_EXAMPLESandBUILD_TESTING: These two values are set to true at default. This determines that some example and testing executables will be built. This might be useful for VTK learners, but you can set it to false for saving storage space if you only need to compile and run a VTK application.BUILD_SHARED_LIBS: Shared libraries will be built if you set this value to true. In order cases, static libraries will be built, and the VTK applications will be self-contained.VTK_Group_Qt: This value should be set as true since we need to provide Qt-support for the program.
Now a new variable called Qt5_DIR may appear in the values and be marked as red. You should set the value of this variable to the cmake path under your Qt directory, for example: C:\Qt\5.11.2\msvc2017_64\lib\cmake. Note that the msvc2017_64 path, this directory should be compatible to your current generator of CMake.
Once you configured all the variables, you can click on the "Configure" button until no variables are marked as red. Then you should click "Generate" button to generate the project files for Visual Studio.
You can open the solution file in Visual Studio by clicking on the "Open Project" button in CMake.
Choose Build->Configuration Manager, and you can set up the configurations for building VTK. It is recommended to change the "Acitve solution configuration" selection to Release mode.
Then you can choose Build->Build Solution or press Ctrl+Shift+B shortcut. The VTK should compile. It may take a long time (nearly an hour on a Core i7-8550U laptop with 16 GiB memory) to compile.
VTK provides a comprehensive User Guide, which includes a step-by-step instruction on installing VTK. We actually followed this user guide to set up the environment for our project development.