Instructions to build it

[pradhyumna85]

How to build it on linux, like what are the steps as when I am trying it always fails at the make command with some fatal error for missing header file. Any recommendation on required build tools - like specific version of g++ to be used/recommended.

I followed on ubuntu 16.04:

sudo apt-get install libqt4-dev libsoqt4-dev \
libboost1.58-dev python2.7-dev libcoin80v5 \
build-essential subversion cvs mercurial git

cd /usr/local/src
git clone https://github.com/coin3d/simvoleon.git
cd simvoleon
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make

Thanks in advance.

[VolkerEnderlein]

Thanks for your interest in SimVoleon.
All repos Coin/SoQt/SimVoleon/... use CMake as build system. The repos still contain the old autotools files but those are not maintained since Coin4 and do not support building with Qt5.
Are you bound to Ubuntu 16.04 and Qt4 or would Ubuntu 18.04 and Qt5 also fit the needs? I am asking, because for Ubuntu 18.04 and Qt5 we already provide precompiled packages in the CI build sections of the repositories involved (Coin, SoQt, simage, ..., SimVoleon)
If you intend to build it from sources I recommend starting with Coin, then build SoQt and SimVoleon.

A typical build sequence would look like this:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/coin3d/coin.git
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/coin3d/soqt.git
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/coin3d/simvoleon.git

sudo apt-get -y install freeglut3-dev libboost-dev qtbase5-dev qtchooser qt5-qmake qtbase5-dev-tools

cmake -S coin -B coin_build -G "Unix Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<your_install_dir>
cmake --build coin_build --target install --config Release -- -j4
cmake -S soqt -B soqt_build -G "Unix Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<your_install_dir> -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=<your_install_dir>
cmake --build soqt_build --target install --config Release -- -j4
cmake -S simvoleon -B simvoleon_build -G "Unix Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<your_install_dir> -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=<your_install_dir>
cmake --build simvoleon_build --target install --config Release -- -j4

The CMake configuration picks up any installed Qt from Qt4 up to Qt6. Command above install Qt5 so this is favored over Qt4.

Maybe simage needs to be built too. Then you should additionally run the following commands:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/coin3d/simage.git

sudo apt-get -y install libpng-dev libjpeg-dev libgif-dev libtiff-dev libogg-dev libvorbis-dev libsndfile-dev zlib1g-dev

cmake -S simage -B simage_build -G "Unix Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<your_install_dir>
cmake --build simage_build --target install --config Release -- -j4

Hope that helps to get you started. When in doubt about the commands please have a look into the CI files under .github/workflows or into appveyor.yml files in the root directory.

Feel free to ask further questions.