ParaView:Build And Install

Introduction

This page describes how to build and install ParaView. It covers both the release and the development version. Also, it covers both Unix type systems (Linux, HP-UX, Solaris), as well as Windows.

Pre-requisites

ParaView build process requires CMake and working compiler. On Unix like operating systems it also requires Make, while on Windows it requires Visual Studio (6, 7, or 7.1).

In order to run ParaView in parallel, MPI [1], [2] is also required.

Download And Install Cmake

CMake is a tool that makes cross platform building simple. On several systems it will probably be already installed. If it is not, please use the following instructions to install it.

Use Binaries

There are several precompiled binaries available at CMake download page. On Unix like operating systems, let say on Linux, download the appropriate version and follow these instructions:

• Download http://www.cmake.org/files/v2.0/cmake-2.0.6-x86-linux.tar.gz

cd $HOME
wget http://www.cmake.org/files/v2.0/cmake-2.0.6-x86-linux.tar.gz
mkdir software
cd software
tar xvfz ../cmake-2.0.6-x86-linux.tar.gz
ls
tar xvf cmake-2.0.6-x86-linux-files.tar

• Now you have directory $HOME/software/bin and inside there are executables cmake and ccmake.
• You can also install CMake in the /usr/local or /opt by untaring into different directory. The rest of instructions will assume it is in $HOME/software/bin.

Build Your Own CMake

Note, to build CMake on windows, previous version of CMake is required. This can be downloaded from CMake download page.

To build CMake on Unix like operating system, Download the source code http://www.cmake.org/files/v2.0/cmake-2.0.6.tar.gz

cd $HOME
wget http://www.cmake.org/files/v2.0/cmake-2.0.6.tar.gz
tar xvfz cmake-2.0.6.tar.gz
mkdir cmake-2.0.6-bin
cd cmake-2.0.6-bin
../cmake-2.0.6/bootstrap --prefix=$HOME/software
make
make install

• Again, you can install it in /usr/local or /opt by changing the prefix.

Build ParaView

Download And Build ParaView

If you are trying to build ParaView release, download it from the release page. For development version, please follow instructions for checking out from CVS.

Download the source code

You can always download the binaries from ParaView download page. This page contains binaries for several platforms and the source code for the releases.

Checkout From CVS

• Download from CVS:

mkdir $HOME/projects
cd $HOME/projects

cvs -d:pserver:anoncvs@www.paraview.org:/cvsroot/ParaView login
<enter>
cvs -d:pserver:anoncvs@www.paraview.org:/cvsroot/ParaView co ParaView

Configure ParaView With CMake

• Use ccmake (Curses CMake GUI) from the CMake installed location.
• Always use separate build directory. Do not build in the source directory

mkdir $HOME/projects/ParaView-bin
cd $HOME/projects/ParaView-bin

$HOME/software/bin/ccmake $HOME/projects/ParaView

About CMake

• Iterative process
  • Select values, run configure (c key)
  • Set the settings, run configure, set the settings run configure etc.
• Repeat until all values are set and <Generate> button is available (g key)
• Some variables (advanced variables) are not visible right away
• To see advanced varables, toggle to advanced mode (t key)
• To set variable, move cursor to the variable and press enter

ParaView Settings

Variable	Description
BUILD_SHARED_LIBS	If ON, use shared libraries. This way executables are smaller, but you have to make sure the shared libraries are on every system on the cluster.
VTK_USE_MPI	Turn this to ON to enable MPI. Other MPI options will not be availabel until you turn this on.
MPI_LIBRARY	Path to the MPI library (such as /usr/lib/libmpi.so). Should be found by default, but you may have to set it.
MPI_EXTRA_LIBRARY	Path to extra MPI library (such as /usr/lib/libmpi++.so). Again, should be found by default.
MPI_INCLUDE_PATH	Path to MPI includes (such as /usr/include/mpi). Again, should be found by default.

Finish Configuring ParaView

• Once all configuration options are set, you should be able to just run <generate> (g key).

Build ParaView

• CMake will now generate Make files.
• You should be able to just type make.
• If you are on multi-processor system (let say 4 procesor), you can type:

 make -j 4

Install ParaView

ParaView can be run directly from the build directory. That said, for production environments, it should be installed on some system location. On Windows, this locations is something like c:\Program Files, where as on Unix like operating systems it is /usr, /usr/local, /opt, or something similar.

To install ParaView, simply run INSTALL target within the build system.