Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@maximecharriere

maximecharriere/CGAL_installation_MSVC.md

Last active May 3, 2024 13:36
Show Gist options
  • Save maximecharriere/5b071d5d07581af58b7333fe72a3e1f7 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save maximecharriere/5b071d5d07581af58b7333fe72a3e1f7 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Download ZIP
This tutorial will guide you through the different steps to install CGAL and its third party libraries
Raw
CGAL_installation_MSVC.md

Installation of CGAL using MSVC on Windows

by @maximecharriere

This tutorial will guide you through the different steps to install CGAL and its third party libraries.
The purpose of this tutorial is that you don't have to spend weeks like me fighting to make them all work.

Feel free to comment on the gist comment section to make corrections or improvements !

This tutorial is divided up like this:

Introduction

Ressources

Name Download Link Version
(Tested February 11, 2021)
Windows 10 v1909 64bit
Visual Studio https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/ 2019 16.8.5
MSVC++ Compiler (with Visual Studio) 14.2
Git https://git-scm.com/downloads/ 2.30.1
CMake https://cmake.org/ 3.19.0
CGAL https://github.com/CGAL/cgal/releases 5.2
Boost https://www.boost.org/users/download/ 1.75.0
Eigen3 http://eigen.tuxfamily.org/index.php 3.3.9
Qt5 https://www.qt.io/download-qt-installer 5.15.2
zlib https://www.zlib.net/ 1.2.11
METIS http://glaros.dtc.umn.edu/gkhome/metis/metis/download 5.1.0
grep http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/grep.htm 2.5.4
libnabo https://github.com/ethz-asl/libnabo Commit 3cab7ee
libpointmatcher https://github.com/ethz-asl/libpointmatcher Commit 6a122f8
OpenGR https://github.com/STORM-IRIT/OpenGR Commit c129638
VTK https://vtk.org/download/ 9.0.1
LAStools https://github.com/CGAL/LAStools Commit 654f84e
TBB https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneTBB Commit 2dba207
GLPK https://sourceforge.net/projects/winglpk/ 4.65
Doxygen https://www.doxygen.nl/download.html 1.9.1
LateX Compiler https://miktex.org/download 21.1
Ghostscript <https://www.ghostscript.com/download/gsdnld.html 9.53.3

Notes

  • It's recommended to use Windows PowerShell with administrator privileges as your CLI
  • All necessary environment variables will be configured so that CMake automatically finds all libraries and you don't have to specify the libraries' paths each time to CMake.
  • When adding any environnement variable, add for All users (system variables)
  • Environement variables are case unsensitive (PATH = Path)
  • Add new environement variables in PATH on top of the list (to avoid conflicts)
  • You must restart your CLI and CMake for new environment variables to take effect
  • In this tutorial, C:\dev will be used as root directory for all installations. The folder can be wherever you want, but it is strongly recommended that the path has no spaces.

Essential installation

Prerequisites

  • C++ compiler (get MSVC compiler by insatalling Visual Studio)
  • Git
  • CMake

Install Boost

  1. Download boost_<version>.zip

  2. Extract boost_<version> in C:\dev

  3. Go to your Boost source directory with your CLI, and do:

    .\bootstrap.bat
.\b2.exe link=shared

  4. Set the following three environment variables:
    BOOST_DIR = C:\dev\boost_<version>\stage\lib\cmake\Boost-<version> (path to BoostConfig.cmake)
    BOOST_LIBRARYDIR = C:\dev\boost_<version>\stage\lib (path to all .lib)
    BOOST_INCLUDEDIR = C:\dev\boost_<version> (root directory)

  5. Add C:\dev\boost_<version>\stage\lib to Path environement variable (path to all .dll)

Install CGAL

CGAL is header only and don't need to be build.

  1. Download CGAL-<version>.zip and CGAL-<version>-win64-auxiliary-libraries-gmp-mpfr.zip files
  2. Extract CGAL-<version>.zip in C:\dev
  3. Extract CGAL-<version>-win64-auxiliary-libraries-gmp-mpfr.zip and past his auxiliary folder in C:\dev\CGAL-<version> (overwrite existing files)
  4. Set CGAL_DIR environement variable to C:\dev\CGAL-<version> (path to CGALConfig.cmake)
  5. Add C:\dev\CGAL-<version>\auxiliary\gmp\lib to Path environement variable (path to libgmp-10.lib)

Notes:
If your GMP and MPFR libraries are not in C:\dev\CGAL-<version>\auxiliary, you have to specify they path in environement variables.

  1. Set GMP_DIR environement variable to the GMP root directory
  2. Set MPFR_DIR environement variable to the MPFR root directory

Well done!
CGAL is now well installed and functional. However, many packages require additional libraries to work.
Missing libraries will usually be specified to you when you configure your program with CMake.

Optional libraries

Install Eigen3

Eigen is header only (see Eigen's "Getting stated" page) and don't need to be build.

  1. Download eigen-<version>.zip
  2. Extract eigen-<version> in C:\dev
  3. Set EIGEN3_INC_DIR environment variable to C:\dev\eigen-<version> (path to signature_of_eigen3_matrix_library)

Install Qt5

  1. Download QT (version 5 needed)
  2. Follow the instructions from the installer
    1. Select following package:
      • MSVC 2019
      • Qt 3D
      • Qt Script
    2. Set the intallation directory to C:\dev\Qt
  3. Set QTDIR environement variable to C:\dev\Qt\<version>
  4. Add C:\dev\Qt\<version>\msvc2019_64\bin to Path environement variable (path to all .dll)

Install zlib

  1. Download zlib<version>.zip

  2. Extract it and past zlib-<version> in C:\dev

  3. Go to your zlib source directory with your CLI, and do:

    mkdir .\build
cd .\build\
cmake-gui ..

    CMake-Gui will open up

  4. Click on the button Configure and specify the generator for the project (Visual Studio 16 2019)

  5. Click on the button Generate and then Open Project
    Visual Studio will open up

  6. Put your "Solution Configuration" in Release mode

  7. Build ALL_BUILD

  8. Copy C:\dev\zlib-<version>\build\zconf.h file in C:\dev\zlib-<version> (otherwise the header file will not be found)

  9. Set ZLIB_ROOT environement variable to C:\dev\zlib-<version>

  10. Add C:\dev\zlib-<version>\build\Release to Path environement variable (path to zlib.lib)

Install METIS

  1. Download metis-<version>.tar.gz

  2. Extract metis-<version> in C:\dev

  3. Edit the file include/metis.h and specify the width (32 or 64 bits) of the elementary data type used in METIS.
    You can edit IDXTYPEWIDTH and REALTYPEWIDTH.

  4. Go to your METIS source directory with your CLI, and do:

    mkdir .\build
cd .\build\
cmake-gui ..

    CMake-Gui will open up

  5. Click on the button Configure and specify the generator for the project (Visual Studio 16 2019)

  6. Click on the button Generate and then Open Project
    Visual Studio will open up

  7. Put your "Solution Configuration" in Release mode

  8. Build ALL_BUILD

    If you got a Error c2059: Syntax error: '(' modify the rint(x) macro in C:\dev\metis-5.1.0\GKlib\gk_arch.h file with the folowing code : (see issue 30)

    #ifdef __MSC__
#if (_MSC_VER < 1800)
/* MSC does not have rint() function */
#define rint(x) ((int)((x)+0.5))
#endif

  9. Set METIS_ROOT environement variable to C:\dev\metis-<version>

  10. Add C:\dev\metis-<version>\build\libmetis\Release to Path environement variable (path to metis.lib)

Install Grep

  1. Download the last Setup "Complete package" of Grep for Windows
  2. Execute the Setup and extract the GnuWin32 folder in C:\dev
  3. Add the path to the Grep .exe (C:\dev\GnuWin32\bin) files to the Path environment variable.

Install libnabo

You need to install Eigen3 and Grep before installing libnabo !

  1. Go to your desired directory with your CLI (here C:\dir)

  2. Do the folowing commands

    git clone https://github.com/ethz-asl/libnabo
mkdir .\libnabo\build
mkdir .\libnabo\build\install
cd .\libnabo\build\
cmake-gui ..

    CMake-Gui will open up

  3. Click on the button Configure and specify the generator for the project (Visual Studio 16 2019)

    An error will be reported, because CMake does not know yet where to find the libraries. The next steps will tell it where to find them.

  4. Set the CMake variable CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to C:/dev/libnabo/build/install

    CAUTION ! Use forward slash /

  5. Click on the button Configure, Generate and then Open Project Visual Studio will open up

    Maybe you will have messages about Doxygen, OpenCL, ANN, FLANN and Python missing. They are not necessary to install libnano.

  6. Put your "Solution Configuration" in Release mode

  7. Build the INSTALL project

  8. Set libnabo_DIR environement variable to C:\dev\libnabo\build\install\share\libnabo\cmake (path to libnaboConfig.cmake)

Install libpointmatcher

You need to install libnabo before installing libpointmatcher !

  1. Go to your desired directory with your CLI (here C:\dir)

  2. Do the folowing commands

    git clone https://github.com/ethz-asl/libpointmatcher
mkdir .\libpointmatcher\build
mkdir .\libpointmatcher\build\install
cd .\libpointmatcher\build\
cmake-gui ..

    CMake-Gui will open up

  3. Click on the button Configure and specify the generator for the project (Visual Studio 16 2019)

  4. Set the CMake variable CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to C:/dev/libpointmatcher/build/install

    CAUTION ! Use forward slash /

  5. Click on the button Configure, Generate and then Open Project
    Visual Studio will open up

  6. Put your "Solution Configuration" in Release mode

  7. Build the INSTALL project

  8. Set libpointmatcher_DIR environement variable to C:\dev\libpointmatcher\build\install\share\libpointmatcher\cmake

Install OpenGR

You need to install Eigen3 before installing OpenGR !

  1. Go to your desired directory with your CLI (here C:\dir)

  2. Do the folowing commands

    git clone https://github.com/STORM-IRIT/OpenGR
mkdir .\OpenGR\build
cd .\OpenGR\build\
cmake-gui ..

    CMake-Gui will open up

  3. Before first configuration, add the CMake variable EIGEN_INCLUDE_DIR (of type PATH) to C:\dev\eigen-<version>.

    CAUTION ! If you don't do that, OpenGR will donwload its own version of Eigen.

  4. Click on the button Configure and specify the generator for the project (Visual Studio 16 2019)

  5. Click on the button Generate and then Open Project
    Visual Studio will open up

  6. Put your "Solution Configuration" in Release mode

  7. Build the ALL_BUILD project

  8. Set OpenGR_DIR environement variable to C:\dev\OpenGR\build

Install VTK

  1. Download VTK-<version>.tar.gz

  2. Extract it and past VTK-<version> in C:\dev

  3. Go to your VTK source directory with your CLI, and do:

    mkdir .\build
cd .\build\
cmake-gui ..

    CMake-Gui will open up

  4. Click on the button Configure and specify the generator for the project (Visual Studio 16 2019)

  5. Click on the button Generate and then Open Project
    Visual Studio will open up

  6. Put your "Solution Configuration" in Release mode

  7. Build the ALL_BUILD project

  8. Set VTK_DIR environement variable to C:\dev\VTK-<version>\build

Install LAStools

  1. Go to your desired directory with your CLI (here C:\dir)

  2. Do the folowing commands

    git clone https://github.com/CGAL/LAStools
mkdir .\LAStools\build
cd .\LAStools\build\
cmake-gui ..

    CMake-Gui will open up

  3. Click on the button Configure and specify the generator for the project (Visual Studio 16 2019)

  4. Click on the button Generate and then Open Project
    Visual Studio will open up

  5. Put your "Solution Configuration" in Release mode

  6. Build the ALL_BUILD project

  7. Set LASLIB_INC_DIR environement variable to C:\dev\LAStools\LASlib\inc

  8. Add C:\dev\LAStools\build\Release to Path environement variable

Install TBB

TBB is for the moment no longer compatible with CGAL. See issue #5676.

  1. Go to your desired directory with your CLI (here C:\dir)

  2. Do the folowing commands

    git clone https://github.com/oneapi-src/oneTBB
mkdir .\oneTBB\build
mkdir .\oneTBB\build\install
cd .\oneTBB\build\
cmake-gui ..

    CMake-Gui will open up

  3. Click on the button Configure and specify the generator for the project (Visual Studio 16 2019)

  4. Set the CMake variable CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to C:/dev/oneTBB/build/install

    CAUTION ! Use forward slash /

  5. Click on the button Generate and then Open Project
    Visual Studio will open up

  6. Put your "Solution Configuration" in Release mode

  7. Build the INSTALL project

  8. Set TBB_ROOT environement variable to C:\dev\oneTBB\build\install

  9. Add C:\dev\oneTBB\build\msvc_19.28_cxx_64_md_release to Path environement variable

Install GLPK

  1. Download GLPK for Windows
  2. Un-zip it in your desired directory (here C:\dir)
  3. Edit the script Build_GLPK_with_VC14.bat with the right paths. Mine gives : 
     rem Build GLPK with Microsoft Visual Studio Enterprise 2019

 rem NOTE: Make sure that HOME variable specifies correct path
 set HOME="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\VC"

 call %HOME%\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat x64
 copy config_VC config.h
 %HOME%\Tools\MSVC\14.28.29910\bin\Hostx64\x64\nmake.exe /f Makefile_VC
 %HOME%\Tools\MSVC\14.28.29910\bin\Hostx64\x64\nmake.exe /f Makefile_VC check

 pause
  4. Double click on the script
  5. Add C:\dev\glpk-<version>\w64 to Path environement variable

GLPK doesn't provide CMake support and will not be automatically found by your project. It will be necessary to configure Cmake variables manually. See CGAL doc.

Install Tensorflow

CGAL wrapper for Tensorboard no longer works. See issue 4928.
It's recommended to use the ETHZ classifier. See doc.

Install Doxygen

  1. Download doxygen-<version>-setup.exe
  2. Follow the instructions from the installer
    1. Set the intallation directory to C:\dev\doxygen

Install LateX

  1. Download basic-miktex-<version>-x64.exe
  2. Follow the instructions from the installer
    1. Set the intallation directory to C:\dev\MiKTeX

Install Ghostscript

  1. Download gs<version>w64.exe
  2. Follow the instructions from the installer
    1. Set the intallation directory to C:\dev\gs
  3. Add C:\dev\gs\bin to Path environement variable (path to gswin64c.exe)

Polyhedron demo building tutorial

The Polyedron demo is a complet demo showing the use of many packages from CGAL with a user interface.
You need first to install all these packages to take advantage of all the features of the demo (but this is not mandatory):

Building

  1. Go to C:\dev\CGAL-<version>\demo\Polyhedron with your CLI

  2. Do the folowing commands

    mkdir .\build
cd .\build\
cmake-gui ..

    CMake-Gui will open up

  3. Click on the button Configure and specify the generator for the project (Visual Studio 16 2019)

    An error will be reported. The next steps will correct it

  4. Set CGAL_Boost_USE_STATIC_LIBS to True

  5. Click on the button Configure, Generate and then Open Project
    Visual Studio will open up

  6. Put your "Solution Configuration" in Release mode

  7. Build the ALL_BUILD project

  8. Launch the demo found in C:\dev\CGAL-<version>\demo\Polyhedron\build\Release

Possible errors

  • METIS_PartMeshNodal

    Error :

    'C2664 int METIS_PartMeshNodal(idx_t *,idx_t *,idx_t *,idx_t *,idx_t *,idx_t *,idx_t *,real_t *,idx_t *,idx_t *,idx_t *,idx_t *)' : cannot convert argument 7 from 'int *' to 'idx_t *'

    Solution (link or code) : CGAL GitHub issue n°5410

  • METIS_PartMeshDual
    Same as METIS_PartMeshNodal error

@sendreams
Copy link

The demo compilation of the windows platform is so complicated, why don't you provide directly compiled binary files?

@maximecharriere
Copy link
Author

maximecharriere commented Mar 5, 2023 •
edited
Loading

I'm not from the CGAL's teams 😅
I just also struggled a lot to install everything from source on Windows, so I did this walkthrough two years ago.
But if you just want all the pre-compiled binary files to lauch the demo, they are available on CGAL's website.

Manual about the demo: https://doc.cgal.org/latest/Manual/windows.html#sec-win-demo
The Demo: https://www.cgal.org/demo/5.5.2/polyhedron_3.zip
All necessaries DLLs (must be placed in the same directory as the .exe of the demo): https://www.cgal.org/demo/5.5.2/CGAL-demoDLLs.zip

@sendreams
Copy link

Selecting Windows SDK version 10.0.22000.0 to target Windows 10.0.20348.
Visual Leak Detector (VLD) is not found.
Using header-only CGAL
Targetting Visual Studio 17 2022
Target build environment supports auto-linking
Using VC toolset 143.
Generator uses intermediate configuration directory: $(Configuration)
Found Boost: C:/Apps/dev/vcpkg/installed/x64-windows/include (found suitable version "1.81.0", minimum required is "1.66")
Boost include dirs: C:/Apps/dev/vcpkg/installed/x64-windows/include
Boost libraries:
Multi-configuration CMake generator: cannot display flags
Requested component: Qt5
Requested component: ImageIO
Found Eigen3: C:/Apps/dev/vcpkg/installed/x64-windows/include/eigen3 (found suitable version "3.4.0", minimum required is "3.2.0")
Qt5WebSockets was found. Using WebSockets is therefore possible.
Found Boost: C:/Apps/dev/vcpkg/installed/x64-windows/include (found version "1.81.0") found components: serialization iostreams regex
Found Boost: C:/Apps/dev/vcpkg/installed/x64-windows/include (found version "1.81.0") missing components: bzip2 zlib
NOTICE: This project requires Boost ZLIB and Boost BZIP2, and will not be compiled.
NOTICE: Boost IO Streams and/or Serialization not found, reading deprecated Classification config files won't be possible.
CMake Deprecation Warning at C:/Apps/dev/vcpkg/installed/x64-windows/share/vtk/vtk-use-file-deprecated.cmake:1 (message):
The VTK_USE_FILE is no longer used starting with 8.90.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
Plugins/IO/CMakeLists.txt:58 (include)

NOTICE : the LAS IO plugin needs LAS libraries and will not be compiled.
NOTICE : The 3mf_io_plugin requires the lib3MF library in a version < 2.0, and will not be compiled.
CMake Error at C:/Apps/dev/vcpkg/installed/x64-windows/share/cgal/CGAL_ITK_support.cmake:3 (set_target_properties):
Property INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES may not contain link-type keyword
"optimized". The INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES property may contain
configuration-sensitive generator-expressions which may be used to specify
per-configuration rules.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
Plugins/Mesh_3/CMakeLists.txt:33 (include)

CMake Deprecation Warning at C:/Apps/dev/vcpkg/installed/x64-windows/share/vtk/vtk-use-file-deprecated.cmake:1 (message):
The VTK_USE_FILE is no longer used starting with 8.90.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
Plugins/Mesh_3/CMakeLists.txt:40 (include)

Found Eigen3: C:/Apps/dev/vcpkg/installed/x64-windows/include/eigen3 (found suitable version "3.4.0", minimum required is "3.1.0")
Found Boost: C:/Apps/dev/vcpkg/installed/x64-windows/include (found version "1.81.0") found components: thread filesystem system program_options date_time chrono atomic
Using header-only CGAL
Qt5WebSockets was found. Using WebSockets is therefore possible.
Missing optional packages:

  • LASLIB, A library for some I/O.
    Requiered for reading or writing LAS files.

Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
See also "C:/Apps/dev/CGAL-5.5.2/demo/Polyhedron/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log".
See also "C:/Apps/dev/CGAL-5.5.2/demo/Polyhedron/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeError.log".

@sendreams
Copy link

sendreams commented Mar 6, 2023 •
edited
Loading

@maximecharriere thanks a lot. it's really complicated, i use vcpkg to perform the compile, some of the package can not be found: libpointmatcher, scip, libnabo,laslib, OpenGR,doxygen.
should be compile by hand or download the installer.

@sendreams
Copy link

sendreams commented Mar 6, 2023 •
edited
Loading

these package can be install by vcpkg:
vcpkg install boost
vcpkg install qt5
vcpkg install qt5-script
vcpkg install cgal
vcpkg install opencv
vcpkg install vtk
vcpkg install Ceres
vcpkg install ITK
vcpkg install LASZIP
vcpkg install LAStools
vcpkg install pcl
vcpkg install pcl[visualization]
vcpkg install boost-timer
vcpkg install boost-assign

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment