Noob question for installation for all libraries/dependencies and compilation on Windows

[petrasvestartas]

Hi,

I have limited experience of C++, let alone using any external libraries, but would really like to start learning libigl using windows Visual Studio 2017. Because it is awesome.

The problem I have is that I do not how to properly install all the libraries.
I know how to run cmake file but that is it pretty much it.

Question A: Could anyone help me, by giving specific links for these dependencies:

1. stl
2. eigen
3. libigl
4. igl::opengl::glfw::Viewer.

Question B: Which location on windows should I place them?

Qustion C: Do I need to compile those external libraries separately?
Or it will be enough to download them and compile this project using CMake?

[danielepanozzo]

There is no need to download anything except libigl. The cmake file will take care of downloading and compiling all the dependencies that you need. The instructions are here: https://libigl.github.io/tutorial/
the only thing to be careful about on windows is that you must use the 64bit compiler in VS2017, it will not work with the 32bit version.

[petrasvestartas]

Dear @danielepanozzo

Thank you for a reply.

What I am missing according to these screenshots?

First I downloaded this example file github repository and tried to build it using CMake, but I got error that I do not have libigl installed:

Then I tried to download libigl from github and compile it, but I got another error:
CMake Error at cmake/DownloadProject.cmake:171 (message):
CMake step for pybind11 failed: 1
Call Stack (most recent call first):
cmake/LibiglDownloadExternal.cmake:14 (download_project)
cmake/LibiglDownloadExternal.cmake:98 (igl_download_project)
cmake/libigl.cmake:182 (igl_download_pybind11)
CMakeLists.txt:43 (include)

[ThomasAuzinger]

I had the same issue. In my case, the problem was that the executable of Git was not found. libigl uses Git to download external dependencies of the core library.
I solved the problem by adding the folder of the Git executable to the PATH environment variable of Windows (e.g., as show at https://stackoverflow.com/a/44272417/1835723).
Note that after changing PATH, CMake has to be restarted.

@danielepanozzo : Perhaps a more descriptive error message can be given or it can be checked if the Git executable is available.