VTK installation

March 10, 2020 ยท View on GitHub

There are two ways to install vtk such that it works for vtkfig.

VTK Development package

With high probability, linux distributions provide a package named vtk-devel or similar. Installation of this package should be sufficient for compiling vtkfig. Similar possibilities exist for homebrew on MacOSX.

VTK Compilation

For the compilation of VTK, consult the corresponding page at Kitware, the maintainer of VTK.

vtkfig doesn't use the full functionality of vtk, and it is possible to work with a subset. This has two advantages:

  • reduced compile time for vtk
  • fewer transient linking clashes with other system libraries, notably mpi and hdf5

Here is the cmake command which allows to build just enough of vtk for a working vtkfig:

cmake ..\
 -GNinja\
 -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release\
 -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$HOME/local\
 -DCMAKE_C_FLAGS:STRING=-fPIC\
 -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS:STRING=-fPIC\
 -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS:BOOL=OFF\
 -DVTK_USE_SYSTEM_LIBRARIES:BOOL=ON\
 -DVTK_USE_SYSTEM_PNG:BOOL=ON\
 -DVTK_USE_SYSTEM_OGG:BOOL=ON\
 -DVTK_USE_SYSTEM_THEORA:BOOL=ON\
 -DVTK_USE_SYSTEM_TIFF:BOOL=ON\
 -DVTK_USE_SYSTEM_ZLIB:BOOL=ON\
 -DVTK_USE_SYSTEM_EIGEN:BOOL=OFF\
 -DVTK_USE_SYSTEM_DOUBLECONVERSION:BOOL=OFF\
 -DVTK_Group_Rendering:BOOL=OFF\
 -DVTK_Group_StandAlone:BOOL=OFF\
 -DModule_vtkCommonCore:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkCommonDataModel:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkCommonExecutionModel:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkCommonMisc:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkCommonSystem:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkCommonMath:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkCommonTransforms:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkRenderingCore:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkRenderingContext2D:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkFiltersCore:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkFiltersGeneral:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkFiltersGeometry:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkFiltersExtraction:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkFiltersFlowPaths:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkInteractionWidgets:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkIOMovie:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkParallelCore:BOOL=ON\
 -DModule_vtkInteractionStyle:BOOL=ON
  • This script assumes working in a subdirectory named e.g. build of the top level directory of the vtk source tree (otherwise, replace the .. accordingly).
  • It uses ninja instead of make which performs a much faster parallel build. After configuring just invoke ninja && ninja install.
  • Install prefix is $HOME/local, this can be changed to any other directory on the CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH where the vtkfig CMakeListe.txt can find stuff.
  • Build no shared libraries, this helps to link everything into one libvtkfig.so. Just change this setting if you feel it is inconvenient (this setting also responsible for the -fPIC linker flags).
  • We try to use system libraries for png etc. Usually, these libraries are available, and using them may avoid some transient linking clashes.
  • All the other stuff is just the heuristic selection of a subset of vtk which keeps vtkfig working. Fear not, it is still >1700 source files large.