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build instructions

Simon Leistikow edited this page Jun 1, 2025 · 11 revisions

Prerequisites

The following libraries are required independently from the operating system.

  • Qt5
  • CMake(-GUI)

If you have them already installed, you can skip to the platform specific part for Windows or Linux.

Qt

Note: At this moment, Voreen can not be build with Qt6, therefore it has to be ensured to install Qt5.

Instructions to Install Qt

  • Visit the page of Qt https://www.qt.io/ and create an account.
  • Download the Qt Online Installer from their page and run it.
  • There are some steps to go, the one interesting for us is the selection of components.

qt_installer

  • It is important to not choose Qt6, but Qt5. The installer does not show these versions directly. Therefore, you have to enable the archive first and click on filter. Now older Qt versions will appear and version 5.15.2 can be chosen.
  • The rest of the Qt-installation can be done with the default settings.

Linux

Open Terminal and go through the following steps:

  • Install some programs & essentials (copy'n'paste for Ubuntu 24.04)
sudo apt install cmake cmake-gui g++ libglew-dev libboost-all-dev libdevil-dev libgdcm-dev libtiff5-dev 
        libswscale-dev libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev freeglut3-dev libhdf5-dev liblz4-dev clinfo opencl-headers 
        libvtk9-dev

Note: libvtk9-dev may not be installed, in this case removing python3-paraview first can help.

  • Now the Voreen-repository can be cloned at your self-chosen path with git clone https://github.com/voreen-project/voreen.git
  • After the repository is cloned, follow the steps from CMake-Gui and afterwards come back to the steps here.
  • Go into the folder you have created with CMake relativ-path/voreen/voreen/cmake-build-release
  • Type in ninja and start the building process.
  • Afterwards, start Voreen with ./bin/voreenve

Windows

Currently, we only support the Microsoft Visual Studio Compiler with Windows that comes with Visual Studio. While older versions might work as well (down to Visual Studio 2017), we recommend using the most recent version (Visual Studio 2022).

Open Terminal and then:

  • Clone the Voreen-repository at a self-chosen path with
git clone https://github.com/voreen-project/voreen.git

Prebuilt libraries for Voreen 5
Some modules in Voreen depend on external libraries. When building Voreen the corresponding libraries to build those modules are important. Here is a quick guide how to include them manually.

  • Go to Pre-Build libraries and download the pre-build libraries.
  • Unzip the files.
  • In relative-path\voreen\voreen\modules there are the folders gdcm, hdf5, itk, vtk and python. All of these folders contain a subfolder ext. Take the unziped foldes of each pre-build library and put in the corresponding ext folder.

Visual Studio installation

CMake-GUI

Open CMake GUI and then:

  • Enter the path of the installed repository under Where is the source code and choose the folder that contains the top level CMakeLists.txt, e.g., relativ-path/voreen/voreen
  • Under Where to build the binaries, choose a path where Voreen should be build. It is recommended to not choose the same path used for the sources. For example, choose a path in the Voreen folder by entering relativ-path/voreen/cmake-build-release
  • Now press Configure. Then the CMakeSetup will appear, where you can Specify the generator for this project.
    • For Linux: Choose Ninja and press Finish.
    • For Winows: The default settings with Visual Studio 17 2022are fine. Press Finish.
  • For both OS the following error should appear:

CMake picture

  • Click OK and search for the file Qt5-DIR

CMake picture2

  • Click on the Qt5-DIR-NOTFOUND and then one of the appearing dots. Now navigate to the path where you have installed Qt5.
    • For Linux: Search for relativ-path/Qt/5.15.2/gcc-64/lib/cmake/Qt5
    • For Windows: Search for path/Qt/5.15.2/msvc2019_64/lib/cmake/Qt5
  • Click configure again and now there should be no error messages anymore

CMake picture3

  • Scrolling through the list in this CMake window, there are several Modules. Some are already checked off, and some not. Decide which ones are relevant and check them.

  • Now click Configure and then Generate.

In Visual Studio

  • After the generation in CMake, press Open Project in the CMake-Gui. Then Visual Studio with the voreen repository will open. It should look like VS
  • Rightclick on the folder voreenve and chose set as starting project.
  • Now you can start the build process with local windows-debugger (the green arrow).
  • There may appear a message saying that the project is outdated. Continue with pressing yes and start the building process. This may take a while.
  • After the building process is done, Voreen will start automatically.
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