Installation

This guide describes the available pre-compiled library packages and instructions for manual builds from source. The BSL can be compiled cross-platform and has been tested for Linux GCC compilers and Windows MSVC 201x compilers.

The source code is published on GitHub .

Dependencies

The BSL uses Protocol Buffers as an encoding protocol for network communication, configuration requests, and file recordings. The protocol allows cross-platform, versioned by design, structured, and optimized data transfers.

It is recommended to install a Protobuf version 3.6.1+ on the build system, as the BSL provides configuration and stream methods directly as Protobuf messages. If the Protobuf dependency conflicts with the existing development environment, the standalone mode (use the CMake flag -DBF_USE_SYSTEM_PROTOBUF=OFF) of the BSL can be enabled. It offers the core functionality, such as streaming simple point clouds, but lacks configuration methods and metadata information.

Pre-compiled packages

Linux

Debian packages with full Protobuf support are available for Ubuntu 19+ and Debian 10+. Debian packages with BSL standalone mode are available for older systems.

Ubuntu 19+ and Debian 10

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y wget libprotobuf-dev libprotobuf17
wget https://github.com/Blickfeld/blickfeld-scanner-lib/releases/latest/download/blickfeld-scanner-lib-dev-Linux.deb
sudo dpkg -i blickfeld-scanner-lib-dev-Linux.deb

Latest debian-based systems

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y wget libprotobuf-dev libprotobuf23
wget https://github.com/Blickfeld/blickfeld-scanner-lib/releases/latest/download/blickfeld-scanner-lib-dev-testing-Linux.deb
sudo dpkg -i blickfeld-scanner-lib-dev-testing-Linux.deb

Older debian-based systems

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y wget
wget https://github.com/Blickfeld/blickfeld-scanner-lib/releases/latest/download/blickfeld-scanner-lib-dev-standalone-Linux.deb
sudo dpkg -i blickfeld-scanner-lib-dev-standalone-Linux.deb

Follow the Getting started guide to write your first application.

Python (cross-platform)

The BSL is also available as a Python package for fast prototyping. For high-performance environments it is recommended to use the C++ implementation.

pip install blickfeld_scanner

Follow the Getting started guide to write your first application.

Windows

No pre-compiled binaries are currently available. Please build it from source.

Building from source

Linux

Dependencies

CMake is required as a build system.

curl https://cmake.org/files/v3.15/cmake-3.15.3-Linux-x86_64.sh -o /tmp/curl-install.sh \
    && chmod u+x /tmp/curl-install.sh \
    && sudo mkdir /usr/bin/cmake \
    && sudo /tmp/curl-install.sh --skip-license --prefix=/usr/bin/cmake \
    && rm /tmp/curl-install.sh

Install Protocol Buffers from source or install available packages.

Packages

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y git build-essential libprotobuf-dev libprotoc-dev protobuf-compiler

From source

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y git build-essential autoconf automake libtool curl unzip
git clone --recursive https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf.git
cd protobuf/cmake
cmake . -Dprotobuf_BUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON
make -j8
sudo make install

Build library with installed dependencies

git clone --recursive https://github.com/Blickfeld/blickfeld-scanner-lib.git
mkdir blickfeld-scanner-lib/build && cd blickfeld-scanner-lib/build
cmake ..
make -j8
sudo make install

Follow the Getting started guide to write your first application.

Build library without installed dependencies

The BSL can also be build without installing the dependencies, it will fetch the needed dependencies via git and build them, before building the BSL. An example how to build the BSL with full support can be found in cmake/external. For this example git is required, to download the sources from protobuf and zlib.

1. Build BSL with all dependencies

   git clone --recursive https://github.com/Blickfeld/blickfeld-scanner-lib.git
   mkdir blickfeld-scanner-lib/build && cd blickfeld-scanner-lib/build
   cmake ../cmake/external
   make
   

   After building the BSL, all dependencies are in the build/install folder (Protobuf, zlib and the BSL). For building the example and linking own projects, the absolute path to the install folder is required, please note it down somewhere.

   For example this could be the following path: /mnt/e/develop/blickfeld-scanner-lib/build/install.

2. Build example and link it to the previously build BSL.

   As an example, the reduced_clouds example is build. The approach is working analogously for the other examples or custom applications.

   Run the follwing commands in the root of the cloned blickfeld-scanner-lib repository:

   mkdir build_example && cd build_example
   cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=<path_to_bsl_install_dir> ../examples/cpp/reduced_clouds/
   make
   

   Note

   The <path_to_bsl_install_dir> is the absolute path to the build/install folder of the BSL build, which we noted down in the step above.

3. Start the example

   To run the example, Linux needs to find the corresponding libraries which reside in the build/install/lib folder from the previous step. The folder should be added to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH as described in the following example:

   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="<path_to_bsl_install_dir>/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"
   ./bf-reduced_clouds <hostname>
   

   Use the device’s hostname or ip adress as <hostname>.

Follow the Getting started guide to write your first application.

Windows

Dependencies

Building on Windows has been tested with MSVC++ and Microsoft nmake. The minimum requirement is a Microsoft Visual Studio 10 compiler. The VC++ build tool can be found here: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/de/downloads/. Install an up-to-date CMake from: https://cmake.org/download/.

To activate full support, Protocol Buffers are required. It is recommended to use CMake External Projects.

Build library

An example how to build the BSL with full support can be found in cmake/external. For this example git is required, to download the sources from protobuf and zlib

1. Build BSL with all dependencies

   git clone --recursive https://github.com/Blickfeld/blickfeld-scanner-lib.git
   mkdir blickfeld-scanner-lib/build && cd blickfeld-scanner-lib/build
   cmake ../cmake/external -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
   cmake --build . --target ALL_BUILD
   

   After building the BSL, all dependencies are in the build/install folder (Protobuf, zlib and the BSL). For building the example and linking own projects, the absolute path to the install folder is required, please note it down somewhere.

   For example this could be the following path: C:\develop\blickfeld-scanner-lib\build\install.

2. Build example and link it to the previously build BSL.

   As an example, the reduced_clouds example is build. The approach is working analogously for the other examples or custom applications.

   Run the follwing commands in the root of the cloned blickfeld-scanner-lib repository:

   mkdir build_example && cd build_example
   cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=<path_to_bsl_install_dir> -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ../examples/cpp/reduced_clouds/
   cmake --build .
   

   Note

   The <path_to_bsl_install_dir> is the absolute path to the build/install folder of the BSL build, which we noted down in the step above.

3. Start the example

   To run the example, Windows needs to find the corresponding DLLs which reside in the build/install/bin folder from the previous step. The folder should be added to the PATH as described in the following example:

   set PATH=<path_to_bsl_install_dir>\bin;%PATH%
   .\Debug\bf-reduced_clouds.exe <hostname>
   

   Use the device’s hostname or ip adress as <hostname>.

Follow the Getting started guide to write your first application.

Build standalone library

git clone --recursive https://github.com/Blickfeld/blickfeld-scanner-lib.git
mkdir blickfeld-scanner-lib/build && cd blickfeld-scanner-lib/build
cmake .. -DBF_USE_SYSTEM_PROTOBUF=OFF -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build . --target ALL_BUILD

Note

The BF_USE_SYSTEM_PROTOBUF=OFF flag builds the BSL with reduced functionality. Read Dependencies for more information.

Follow the Getting started guide to write your first application.

Compile options

Note

Detailed information about the CMake compile options will be available soon.