SIMPLEX SOLVER

This is the suite of compiled C++ plugins that the Simplex UI interfaces with. There are builds for for Maya, Softimage (RIP), and Python. All builds are currently targeting Windows, and are untested on Linux. However, Linux support is coming soon.

Building on Windows

• Get all the build prerequisites:
  • Get and install Visual Studio. (The Express and Community editions are free online)
    • At least Visual Studio 2012 is required for Maya 2016 and 2017
    • At least Visual Studio 2015 is required for Maya 2018
    • I've compiled for Maya 2016-2018 using Visual Studio 2017 without issue.
  • Get and install CMake from https://cmake.org/download/
    • Make sure you can run cmake from the command line. Look online to show you how

Build for Maya

1. For Windows, Right-click and EDIT the mayaConfigure.bat
   • Change the line with SET MAYA_VERSION= to whatever version you're compiling for
   • Change the SET COMPILER= to your compiler version.
     • You can get the available compilers by running cmake --help in the command line
   • Remove the word REM from the line starting REM cmake --build
2. Run the mayaConfigure.bat file. You should see a line saying "Build succeeded" when it completes.
3. If all goes well, there should now be 2 new folders in SimplexCPP called "mayabuild" and "output"
   • Go into the output folder, click through all the other folders, and find simplex_maya.mll

Building for Python or XSI follows a similar procedure using the respective .bat files

Building on Linux

• Get all the build prerequisites:
  • Minimum requirement for linux build is a gcc version which supports C++ 11 Standard
    • Prefered GCC version from Maya 2019, 2020 and probably 2021, will be 6.3.1
  • Get and install CMake from https://cmake.org/download/
    • Make sure you can run cmake from the command line. Look online to show you how

Note: Linux support is tested only with Maya 2019 and 2020, also Python 2.7. Plugin is not tested with XSI in linux. There is a possibilty for this not to work as the latest version of XSI build using an older gcc(4.2.4), which doesn't support C++ 11.

Setup

Clone the repository into your development path.

$ cd <development_path>
$ git clone --recurse-submodules git@github.com:blurstudio/SimplexPlugins.git
$ cd SimplexPlugins
$ make --help

Build for Maya

CMake

• Create build directory (default: mayabuild)
• Generate the build files inside the directory

$ rm -rf mayabuild # Remove the directory if exists
$ mkdir mayabuild
$ cd mayabuild
$ cmake -DMAYA_VERSION=<version_of_maya> -DMAYA_LOCATION=<maya_path_optional> ..

• Build the maya plugin

$ cd mayabuild
$ cmake --build . --config Release

• Install the plugin

$ cmake --build . --target install

Gnu Make

Gnu make have some simple wrapper command to do the above steps (CMake)

• make generate_maya -> Genrate the build files for maya plugin inside mayabuild directory
• make build_maya -> Command to compile the source code
• make install_maya -> Command to compile the source code

Note: Change the MAYA_VERSION inside the Makefile to build for a different version of maya

Build for Python

CMake

• Create build directory (default: pybuild)
• Generate the build files inside the directory

$ rm -rf pybuild # Remove the directory if exists
$ mkdir pybuild
$ cd pybuild
$ cmake -DPY_VERSION=<version_of_python> -DTARGET_DCC=Python ..

• Build the python c++ extension

$ cd pybuild
$ cmake --build . --config Release

• Install the extesion

$ cmake --build . --target install

Gnu Make

• make generate_python -> Genrate the build files for maya plugin inside mayabuild directory
• make build_python -> Command to compile the source code
• make install_python -> Command to compile the source code

TODO

• Write make.bat batch file to standardize the build commands
• Test XSI linux support
• Add build support for MacOS