Building SIMDIS SDK

Supported Systems/Compilers

Operating systems officially supported by the SIMDIS SDK:

  • Windows Vista/7/8/10
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6/7

Compilers officially supported by the SIMDIS SDK:

  • Windows compilers:
    • Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 (VC10)
    • Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 (VC11)
    • Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 (VC12)
    • Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 (VC14)
  • Linux compilers:
    • GCC 4.x series

Third Party Dependencies

The SIMDIS SDK depends on the following third party libraries:

Other versions may also work, such as Qt 4.7. But we can only support the configurations that we build against.

Precompiled Windows binaries for all of the SIMDIS SDK dependencies can be obtained from the SIMDIS SDK project download page. Linux users may find that many of the SIMDIS SDK dependencies are available from the package repository for their Linux distribution.

To build the dependencies from source, obtain the source packages from the specified project websites and follow the included build and installation instructions.

Both OpenSceneGraph and osgEarth have additional third party dependencies. More information about these dependencies can be found at the OpenSceneGraph and osgEarth web sites. Linux users will likely find that all of these additional dependencies are available in the package repository for their Linux distribution. For your convenience, precompiled binaries for these dependencies have been included with the precompiled binary packages for Windows.

Binary Installation

If you are compiling the SIMDIS SDK from source, use the instructions in the next section. You may skip this section, proceeding to the next section entitled Source Installation.

To install the precompiled SIMDIS SDK binaries available from the SIMDIS SDK project page, simply extract the zip file containing the SIMDIS SDK files to a directory of your choosing. Make note of the location of the SIMDIS SDK installation. The documentation will refer to this directory as <simdis-sdk-bin-dir>. Whenever you see the value <simdis-sdk-bin-dir>, substitute the name of the directory on your system that contains the installation of the SIMDIS SDK.

Source Installation

If you do not plan on building the SIMDIS SDK from source, and instead plan to use one of the precompiled binary versions available from the SIMDIS SDK project page, you may skip this section and proceed to the next section entitled System Environment Setup.

Installing the Source

You must first extract the SIMDIS SDK from the zip file obtained from the SIMDIS SDK project page to a directory of your choosing. Make note of the location of the SIMDIS SDK. The documentation will refer to this directory as <simdis-sdk-src-dir>. Whenever you see the value <simdis-sdk-src-dir>, substitute the name of the directory on your system that contains the SIMDIS SDK source code.

Configuring the Build

The SIMDIS SDK makes use of the CMake Cross Platform Make build system for generating platform specific build files. If you do not already have CMake installed on your system, you must obtain and install it. CMake can be obtained from the CMake project web page.

You will use the cmake-gui application to configure the SIMDIS SDK for building. Start cmake-gui and specify the source and build directories. You should specify <simdis-sdk-src-dir. as the source directory. You may also specify <simdis-sdk-src-dir> as the build directory, but it is recommended that you keep the build directory separate from the source directory, using a directory such as <simdis-sdk-src-dir>/build.

Now click the ‘Configure’ button and select your target build system. CMake will generate a list of variables describing the build properties, such as the locations of the 3rd party dependencies, and display them in a list. Many of 3rd party dependency locations will be initially marked as NOTFOUND. Specify the correct paths to the 3rd party dependencies and click ‘Configure’ again, then click Generate. You are now ready to build the SIMDIS SDK source code.

NOTE: If you have installed all of the third party dependencies in the same directory, the SIMDIS SDK CMake configuration should locate the files. You do not have to specify the location of each 3rd party library independently.

NOTE: You can specify the installation location for the SIMDIS SDK with the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX variable.

Compiling the Source

To compile the source, simply start the build using the build system that you specified in the previous section. Microsoft Visual Studio users will find solution files for the SIMDIS SDK in the build directory specified to CMake. Make users will find a make file in the build directory specified to CMake.

Installing the Results

The CMake project files include support for installing the SIMDIS SDK files generated by the build process. Microsoft Visual Studio users can run the install process by building the INSTALL project that appears in the solution under the CMakePredefinedTargets folder. make users can run the install process by invoking the make install command.

Make note of the location of the SIMDIS SDK installation. The documentation will refer to this directory as <simdis-sdk-bin-dir>. Whenever you see this value <simdis-sdk-bin-dir>, substitute the name of the directory on your system that contains the installation of the SIMDIS SDK.

System Environment Setup

Environment Setup for the Sample Data Set

The example programs provided with the SIMDIS SDK require a sample data set for proper operation. This data set can be obtained from the SIMDIS SDK project page. Once you have downloaded the zip file containing the sample data set, you should extract it to a directory of your choosing. After the files have been extracted, you must create an environment variable named SIMDIS_SDK_FILE_PATH.

whose value is set to the path to the directory containing the sample data. Instructions for setting environment variables on Windows can be found here.

Setting the System Search Path

The system library and program search paths must be setup to find the libraries and programs installed for the SIMDIS SDK. Windows users need to add <simdis-sdk-bin-dir>/bin to the PATH environment variable, so Windows knows where to look for the SIMDIS SDK DLLs and example programs. Instructions for setting environment variables on Windows can be found here.

Linux users will need to add <simdis-sdk-bin-dir>/bin to their PATH environment variable to run the SIMDIS SDK examples from the command line without having to specify the fill path to the example executables. The directory <simdis-sdk-bin-dir>/lib will need to be added to the system’s library search path so that the system knows where to find the SIMDIS SDK shared libraries. This can be done with RPATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, or ldconfig. Some notes on shared libraries can be found here.

NOTE: Use of LD_LIBRARY_PATH is considered bad practice/dangerous.

NOTE: If you only want to run the SIMDIS SDK example programs, you should not need to setup the library search path.

Setting up a Project that Uses the SIMDIS SDK

Projects using the SIMDIS SDK must add <simdis-sdk-bin-dir>/include to their include path and <simdis-sdk-bin-dir>/lib to their library path. Microsoft Visual Studio users can set these values on a project by project basis by specifying the appropriate values in the project settings, or can set these values globally by adding them to the “Include files” and “Library files” lists found in the “VC++ Directories” section of the “Projects and Solutions” section of the Options dialog. The Options dialog is accessed through the Microsoft Visual Studio Tools menu.