FreeSOLID - Interference Detection Library
Copyright (C) 1997, 1998 Gino van den Bergen
NOTE: FreeSOLID is the LGPL version of SOLID. SOLID is further
developed and licensed commercially by Dtecta. See
www.libsolid.com for terms of licensing SOLID.
Introduction
FreeSOLID is a library for collision detection of three-dimensional objects undergoing rigid motion and deformation. FreeSOLID is designed to be used in interactive 3D graphics applications, and is especially suited for collision detection of objects and worlds described in VRML.
The objects can be modeled as primitives, such as boxes, cones, cylinders, and spheres, or as complex shapes composed of polytopes. The placement of an object is given either as a sequence of translations, rotations, and nonuniform scalings, or as a 4x4 column-major matrix, that represents an affine transformation, as used in OpenGL.
Requirements
The library is written in ANSI/ISO C++ and relies heavily on STL. Currently it compiles under GNU g++ version 2.8.1 and Visual C++ 5.0. The library has a standard C API and can be linked to both C and C++ applications. Note that in order to use in C applications, you need to explicitly include the libstdc++ library in the linkage.
For fast intersection tests and distance computations between convex polyhedra, FreeSOLID relies on the Qhull library for convex hull computations. Qhull is a free software library and is available for most platforms. The Qhull source code can be downloaded from URL:
http://www.geom.umn.edu/software/qhull/
Note that a properly operating FreeSOLID library can be compiled without using Qhull. However, it is recommended to incorporate Qhull for a better performance, when polyhedra are used.
License
The FreeSOLID library and accompanying C++ classes for 3D geometry are released under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License. See the file COPYING.LIB for details.
Installation
In case you have a recent GNU developers environment installed, simply typing `make' in the root of the distribution directory will build the library, a sample client and documentation.
If you want to use another compiler, you should make the necessary changes to the `Make-config' file in the root directory. FreeSolid now autodetects the presence of Qhull library when you build using the configure script. The Qhull header files are assumed to be under '$INCLUDE_PATH/qhull/' If your Qhull installation is under a non-standard directory. Then you need to put all the Qhull header files under a directory named 'qhull'. Then you may need to set the env variables CXXFLAGS, CPPFLAGS to point to those directories. Under bash if qhull is under the directory $HOME/packages, you type
$ export CPPFLAGS="-I$HOME/packages"
$ export CXXFLAGS="-I$HOME/packages"
under csh you type
% setenv CPPFLAGS "-I$HOME/packages"
% setenv CXXFLAGS "-I$HOME/packages"
before doing a ./configure .
The auxiliary C++ classes in `include/3D' may be used for performing 3D transformations. The classes have all their code inlined, so you do not need to link a library in order to use them.
If you've checked out a fresh CVS sandbox, the following steps are required to generate a proper 'configure' file.
aclocal
automake -a
autoconf
autoheader
Documentation
The FreeSOLID manual is available as: (i) an Emacs info file, (ii) a DVI file (use dvips to print as postscript), and (iii) a set of HTML files.
The HTML files are also made available on the FreeSOLID web page located at
http://www.win.tue.nl/~gino/solid/
Contact Info
Please send remarks, questions and bug reports to gino@dtecta.com or write to:
Gino van den Bergen
Sterkenstraatje 4
5708 ZC Helmond
The Netherlands