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Installing SOFA under Windows

To install SOFA under Windows, you can download either the pre-compiled binary version or the source distribution.

Binary distribution

Simply run the provided installer and use the shortcuts in the Start menu or double-click on runSofa.exe installed in the bin subdirectory. If it fails with a DLL error it is probably because you don't have Visual C++ 2005 SP1 installed. You can get the necessary DLL here.


If you have the CUDA SDK installed and a G80 GPU (such as a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX or 8600GT), you can start sofaCUDA to test GPGPU examples. You can then open the other scenes in the examples directory with the File/Open menu. Alternatively you can tell windows to start runSofa.exe when you double-click on .scn files.

Source distribution

  • Download the SOFA framework, modules and applications archives, as well as the win32 dependencies archive
  • Create a directory where you want to install SOFA
  • Unzip all archive in this directory. You should have the following subdirectories: 
    sofa (your root SOFA directory)
  applications
  bin
  examples
  extlibs
  framework
  include
  lib
  modules
  share
  tools
  • Edit sofa-default.cfg and customize it if necessary (for example, uncomment SOFA_GPU_CUDA to activate CUDA support)
  • If you are using Visual C++ 2005, start project VC8.bat
  • If you are using Visual C++ 2008, start project VC9.bat
  • Open Sofa.sln in Visual Studio
  • Set the Release configuration as active
  • Build all projects

If the compilation was successful, it should have created a runSofa.exe in the bin directory (or runSofad.exe if you compiled the debug version).

Select runSofa as start project in the solution explorer. Alternatively you can tell windows to start runSofa.exe when you double-click on .scn files.

Once the program runs, you can open other examples in the examples directory with the File/Open menu.


Installing SOFA under Linux

Source distribution

  • Download the SOFA framework, modules and applications archives
  • Install the needed dependencies :
    • For Ubuntu : 
      sudo aptitude install libqt4-dev libglew-dev libglut-dev libxml2-dev
    • For Fedora Core : 
      su -c "yum install qt-devel glew-devel freeglut-devel libxml2-devel"
    • For Mandriva : 
      su -c "urpmi libqt4-devel libglew-devel libmesaglut3-devel libxml2-devel"
  • Create a directory where you want to install SOFA
  • Unzip all archive in this directory. You can use the following commands (change the archive version for newer releases): 
    mkdir sofa
cd sofa
unzip ../sofa-framework-1.0-beta4.zip
unzip ../sofa-modules-1.0-beta4.zip
unzip ../sofa-applications-1.0-beta4.zip
  • You should have the following subdirectories: 
    sofa (your root SOFA directory)
  applications
  examples
  extlibs
  framework
  modules
  share
  • Edit sofa-default.cfg and customize it if necessary (for example, uncomment SOFA_GPU_CUDA to activate CUDA support)
  • Compile SOFA, either by using the provided kdevelop project or using the following commands: 
    qmake
make
  • You can test that it worked by trying the following command from the sofa directory: 
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PWD/lib/linux:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH bin/runSofa
  • Add the SOFA bin and lib/linux directory in your PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variables (if you use bash, you can add the following in your ~/.bashrc file) : 
    source your_path_to_sofa/config.sh

If the compilation was successful, it should have created a runSofa binary in the bin directory (or runSofad if you compiled the Debug version).

You can start it directly or adding as argument a .scn example file from the examples directory.

Installing SOFA under Mac OS

Source distribution

  • Download the SOFA framework, modules and applications archives, as well as the mac dependencies archive
  • Install the needed dependencies :
    • The Qt toolkit should be installed. You can use the LGPL/Free version available here.
  • Create a directory where you want to install SOFA
  • Unzip all archive in this directory. You can use the following commands (change the archive version for newer releases): 
    mkdir sofa
cd sofa
unzip ../sofa-framework-1.0-beta4.zip
unzip ../sofa-modules-1.0-beta4.zip
unzip ../sofa-applications-1.0-beta4.zip
unzip ../dependencies-mac-1.0-beta4.zip
  • You should have the following subdirectories: 
    sofa (your root SOFA directory)
  applications
  examples
  extlibs
  framework
  include
  lib
  modules
  share
  • Edit sofa-default.cfg and customize it if necessary (for example, uncomment SOFA_GPU_CUDA to activate CUDA support)
  • Compile SOFA, either by using the QtCreator GUI or using the following commands: 
    "./Project MacOS.sh"
make
  • You can test that it worked by trying the following command from the sofa directory: 
    DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PWD/lib/macx:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH bin/runSofa
  • Add the SOFA bin and lib/macx directory in your PATH and (DY)LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variables (if you use bash, you can add the following in your ~/.bashrc file) : 
    source your_path_to_sofa/config.sh

If the compilation was successful, it should have created a runSofa binary in the bin directory (or runSofad if you compiled the Debug version).

You can start it directly or adding as argument a .scn example file from the examples directory.

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