README

ABOUT
=====

This software delivers tools to build surface reconstructions from point cloud
data and a simple viewer to display the results. Additionally, the found
surfaces will be classified into predefined categories. The main aim of this
project is to deliver fast and accurate surface extraction algorithms for
robotic applications such as tele operation in unknown environments and
localization.

This software is under permanent development and runs under Linux and MacOS. A
Windows version will be made avialable soon.


COMPILATION
===========

The software is built using cmake. To compile create a build subdirectory.
Switch to this directory and call:

% cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
% make

The binaries are compiled to the ./bin directory in the base dir.

You may simply copy this:
% mkdir build; cd build; cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..; make; cd ../bin 

REQUIRED LIBRARIES
==================

  + OpenGL
  + glut
  + BOOST Filesystem
  + BOOST Program Option
  + BOOST System
  + Qt 4.8 or higher for viewer
  + BOOST
    - Filesystem
    - Program Option
    - System
    - Thread
  + Qt 4.6 or newer (for qviewer)
  + libQGLViewer 2.3.9 or newer (for qviewer)
  + libXi
  + libXmu
  + Optional: librply [https://github.com/lkiesow/librply]
  + OpenCV

You need to compile libQGLViewer with CONFIG += no_keywords to be compatible 
with Boost. If the version that comes with your Linux distrubution is not
build this way, you have to compile and install the library manually with these 
flags. The sources can be found on the project website: http://www.libqglviewer.com/

USAGE
=====

Your can experiment with the software using the provided dataset. For a simple
reconstruction call:

% ./bin/reconstruct -v 100 dat/scan.pts

in the root directory of the project. This will create a file called
“traingle_mesh.ply” which can be displayed using the viewer application:

% ./bin/qviewer 

If you want to use the example data, call for colorizing a point cloud without
color informaion call:

% ./colorize -d 100 -c ff0000 example-data/scan-no-color.3d \
     example-data/scan-with-color.pts colored-scan.pts

For file conversion of point clouds and meshes use the convertmodel
application:

% ./convertmodel examplefile.pts examplefile.ply


For more information, build the Doxygen documentation by calling
% make doc
in the build directory.