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Develop and extend ObjectiveFrame

ObjectiveFrame is a C++ application built upon several libraries. To build the application, required libraries have to be built. The main library used is Ivf++, an object-oriented 3D scene graph library encapsulating the OpenGL library. The second library is GLFW for creating OpenGL windows and providing a source of window events.

Project structure

ObjectiveFrame is built as a set of static libraries with the application on top:

Library Namespace Role
fem ofem The FEM data model - nodes, beams, materials, loads, boundary conditions, sections, file I/O
visfem vfem Ivf++ based visual representations of the FEM objects
ofui ofui All Dear ImGui panels, popups and toolbars
ofsolve ofsolver Solver interface, and the TetGen based mesher
ofmath — Geometry maths: grid planes, ray intersection, transforms, smoothing
ofservice ofservice The CivetWeb HTTP service behind the Automation API
ofai ofai Claude API integration for the AI workflow
util ofutil Colour maps, result info, logging, application settings

The application layers three windows: GLFWWindow owns the window and the OpenGL context, IvfViewWindow adds the Ivf++ scene graph, the camera and the editing modes, and FemViewWindow holds the FEM model, the user interface, the scripting engine and the AI integration.

ofui never includes application headers, and ofservice reaches the application only through the ofservice::IAppController interface, so neither library depends on FemViewWindow.

Prerequisites

Before building ObjectiveFrame, ensure you have the following prerequisites installed:

  1. CMake (version 3.24 or higher)
  2. Download from cmake.org

  3. Ensure cmake is in your PATH

  4. C++ Compiler with C++20 support

  5. Windows: Visual Studio 2022 or later (with C++ workload)

  6. Linux: GCC 10+ or Clang 12+ 

    # Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential cmake

# Fedora/CentOS
sudo dnf install gcc-c++ cmake

  7. Git (for cloning repositories)

  8. Download from git-scm.com

vcpkg Setup

ObjectiveFrame uses vcpkg for dependency management. The build system automatically detects vcpkg in the following locations:

  1. VCPKG_ROOT environment variable
  2. Common installation paths:
  3. Windows: c:/vcpkg or e:/vcpkg
  4. Linux: $HOME/vcpkg or /usr/local/vcpkg

Installing vcpkg

If you don't have vcpkg installed:

# Clone vcpkg
git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git c:/vcpkg

# Bootstrap vcpkg
c:/vcpkg/bootstrap-vcpkg.bat

# Optionally set VCPKG_ROOT
$env:VCPKG_ROOT = "c:/vcpkg"

# Clone vcpkg
git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git ~/vcpkg

# Bootstrap vcpkg
~/vcpkg/bootstrap-vcpkg.sh

# Optionally set VCPKG_ROOT
export VCPKG_ROOT=$HOME/vcpkg

Dependencies

ObjectiveFrame requires the following packages (automatically installed via vcpkg):

  • PNG
  • JPEG
  • ZLIB
  • glfw3
  • GLEW
  • OpenGL
  • CURL
  • ChaiScript (header-only)

See vcpkg.json in the root directory for the complete list of dependencies.

Building ObjectiveFrame

The build system works with both single-config and multi-config generators.

Windows (Visual Studio)

# Configure the project
cmake -S . -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022"

# Build Release configuration
cmake --build build --config Release

# Build Debug configuration
cmake --build build --config Debug

Alternatively, open build/objframe2.sln in Visual Studio and build from there.

Linux (Makefile/Ninja)

# Configure for Release
cmake -S . -B build-release -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

# Build Release
cmake --build build-release

# Configure for Debug
cmake -S . -B build-debug -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug

# Build Debug
cmake --build build-debug

Using Ninja (Faster builds)

On both Windows and Linux, you can use Ninja for faster builds:

# Install Ninja
# Windows: choco install ninja
# Linux: sudo apt install ninja-build

# Configure with Ninja
cmake -S . -B build-ninja -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

# Build
cmake --build build-ninja

Build Options

You can customize the build with these CMake options:

  • CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE: Set to Release, Debug, or RelWithDebInfo
  • CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX: Installation directory
  • IVF_ROOT: Location of the Ivf++ tree (default: ../ivfplusplus, next to this repository)
  • OF_SWEPT_EXTRUSION: Build beam geometry on the gle-free swept extrusion classes (default: ON)
  • USE_LEAP: Build with LeapMotion support (default: OFF)

Example: 

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=./install

Running ObjectiveFrame

After building, you can run ObjectiveFrame from the installation directory:

# From Release build
.\bin\Release\objframe.exe

# From Debug build
.\bin\Debug\objframe.exe

# From Release build
./build-release/objframe

# From Debug build
./build-debug/objframe

Command Line Options

The application itself takes a few options, which are useful while developing:

  • --ui-mode=simple / --ui-mode=advanced: start in that interface profile for this run only, without changing the stored setting.
  • --gldebug: create a debug OpenGL context and route driver messages into the log window.
  • --core, --legacy, --mixed: choose the render profile. Core is the default.

A model filename can also be passed, and is opened at startup.

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

  1. vcpkg not found: Ensure VCPKG_ROOT is set or vcpkg is in a standard location
  2. CMake errors: Make sure you have CMake 3.24+
  3. Compiler errors: Ensure your compiler supports C++20
  4. Missing dependencies: Run vcpkg install manually if needed

Manual vcpkg Installation

If automatic dependency installation fails:

# Install dependencies manually
vcpkg install --triplet x64-windows  # Windows
vcpkg install --triplet x64-linux    # Linux

Contributing

When contributing to ObjectiveFrame:

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a feature branch
  3. Make your changes
  4. Test your build on both Windows and Linux
  5. Submit a pull request

Building Ivf++

Ivf++ is not automatically built via vcpkg. You need to build it manually. The recommended approach is to clone and build Ivf++ in a directory next to the objectiveframe project source.

Prerequisites for Ivf++

  • CMake 3.24+
  • vcpkg (same setup as ObjectiveFrame)
  • C++20 compatible compiler

Building Ivf++

# Clone Ivf++ repository next to objectiveframe
cd ..
git clone https://github.com/jonaslindemann/ivfplusplus.git

# Create build directory
cd ivfplusplus
mkdir build
cd build

# Configure and build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build . --config Release

# Install (optional, or set IVFPLUSPLUS_DIR)
cmake --install . --prefix ../install

Integration with ObjectiveFrame

ObjectiveFrame looks for Ivf++ in ../ivfplusplus, next to this repository, which is why the clone above is made there. If it lives somewhere else, point IVF_ROOT at it:

$env:IVF_ROOT = "c:\src\ivfplusplus"

export IVF_ROOT=$HOME/src/ivfplusplus

Or pass it to CMake: 

cmake -S . -B build -DIVF_ROOT=../ivfplusplus

The build reads the headers from $IVF_ROOT/include and the libraries from $IVF_ROOT/lib, so Ivf++ has to be built but does not have to be installed.

Building GLFW

GLFW is automatically installed via vcpkg. No manual building required.