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It is STRONGLY advised to read through this entire doc page before getting started.

Preconfigured Docker image

We provide preconfigured Docker images based on Ubuntu or CentOS.
These images contain all the tools and dependencies needed to build SOFA.
Feel free to use them and to propose your own versions on Docker Hub!

CentOS image: https://hub.docker.com/r/sofaframework/sofabuilder_centos

Ubuntu image: https://hub.docker.com/r/sofaframework/sofabuilder_ubuntu

Build tools

Compiler

SOFA requires a C++17 compatible compiler.
On Linux, we officially support GCC >= 7 and Clang >= 5.

First, install the standard compilation toolkit with this command:

GCC

To know which GCC versions are available for your distribution, run this command:

Then, install the latest one with the usual command (example with gcc-7):

Clang

Clang is an alternative to GCC. It compiles approximately two times faster !
We recommend to install Clang 5 or newer.

To know which Clang versions are available for your distribution, run this command:

Then, install the latest one with the usual command (example with clang-5.0):

CMake: Makefile generator

SOFA requires at least CMake 3.12.
We recommend to install CMake using the latest official installer.

[optional] Ninja: build system

Ninja is an alternative to Make. It has a better handling of incremental builds.

[optional] CCache: caching system

We advise you to use ccache. It is by no means mandatory, but it will dramatically improve the compilation time if you make changes to SOFA.

Dependencies

Core (required)

SOFA requires some libraries:

Plugins (optional)

SOFA plugins depend on libraries that are available in the official repositories.
You probably don’t need them all, but you might find it convenient to install them all and not worry about it later.
This list does not cover all available SOFA plugins, only the ones that are built by our continuous integration platform.

Building SOFA

Setup your source and build directories

To set up clean repositories, we recommend to arrange the SOFA directories as follows:

sofa/
├── build/
│   ├── master/
│   └── v20.06/
└── src/
    └── < SOFA sources here >

First, checkout the sources from Git repository:

Get the current stable version on the v20.06 branch:

OR get the development unstable version on the master branch:

Generate a Makefile with CMake

  1. Create build directories respecting the arrangement above.

  2. Run CMake-GUI and set source folder and build folder.

  3. Run Configure. A popup will ask you to specify the generator for the project.

    • If you installed Ninja, select “CodeBlocks – Ninja”.
    • Otherwise, select “CodeBlocks – Unix Makefile”.

  4. Choose “Specify native compilers” and press “Next”

  5. Set the C compiler to /usr/bin/gcc or /usr/bin/clang
    Set the C++ compiler to /usr/bin/g++ or /usr/bin/clang++

  6. Run Configure.

  7. Fix eventual dependency errors by following CMake messages (see Troubleshooting section below). Do not worry about warnings.

  8. (optional) Customize SOFA via CMake variables

    • choose the build type by setting CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE to “Release” or “RelWithDebInfo” (recommended) or “Debug”
    • activate or deactivate plugins: see PLUGIN_XXX variables
    • activate or deactivate functionalities: see SOFA_XXX variables

    Do not forget to Configure again to check if your changes are valid.

  9. When you are ready, run Generate.

Compile

To compile, open a terminal in your build directory and run make or ninja depending on the generator you chose during CMake configuration.
Do not forget the -j option to use all your CPU cores.

Time for a coffee!

Troubleshooting CMake errors

Qt detection error

To solve Qt detection errors, click on Add Entry and add CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH with path /home/YOUR_USERNAME/Qt/QT_VERSION/COMPILER matching your Qt architecture.
Example: CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/home/bob/Qt/5.7/gcc_64
Configure again.

A further dev warning may appear:

CMake Warning (dev) at YOUR_QT_PATH/lib/cmake/Qt5Core/Qt5CoreMacros.cmake:224 (configure_file):
configure_file called with unknown argument(s):

COPY_ONLY

Call Stack (most recent call first):
applications/projects/Modeler/exec/CMakeLists.txt:14 (qt5_add_resources)

This is just a typo with Qt5CoreMacros.cmake file. It uses COPY_ONLY instead of COPYONLY. Simply edit your Qt5CoreMacros.cmake, replace COPY_ONLY with COPYONLY and Configure again.

Last modified: 14 September 2020

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