VirtualBow

VirtualBow is a free, open-source software tool for designing and simulating bows. Visit http://www.virtualbow.org for more information about the program and its features.

Building

Building VirtualBow requires CMake, a C++17 compiler and the following external dependencies:

• Qt
• Boost
• Catch
• Eigen (Master branch)
• Json
• NLopt

Optional pre-built dependencies for the supported platforms and compilers are available at virtualbow-dependencies. They each contain a file named paths.cmake that will set up the CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH such that the correct libraries are found by CMake. The easiest way to use it is by setting CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE to paths.cmake in your build,

-DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=[dependencies]/paths.cmake

If you're using Qt Creator you can set this property under Projects - Build Settings - CMake. (If the configuration step keeps failing, try Build - Clear CMake Configuration and then run CMake again via Build - Run CMake.)

Windows

Using the GCC compiler from MinGW-w64,

mkdir build && cd build
cmake ../ -G "MinGW Makefiles" -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=[...]/paths.cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build .

Building with Microsoft Visual C++ should also be possible, but is not officially supported and tested anymore. Contributions that fix issues with MSVC will of course still be accepted.

Linux and MacOS

On Linux, the pre-built dependencies don't include Qt. Instead the Qt libraries packaged with the system are used. On Ubuntu for example they can be installed with

sudo apt install qtbase5-dev libqt5x11extras5-dev libgl1-mesa-dev

The rest of the build process is the same on Linux and MacOS

mkdir build && cd build
cmake ../ -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=[...]/paths.cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build .

Contributing

Contributions are much appreciated! Please follow the steps below to get your changes included in this repository:

1. Fork the repository and create a new branch from develop
2. Implement, commit and push your changes
3. Create a pull request back to the develop branch of this repository. Link any relevant issues.
4. Wait and see if the build pipeline passes. Keep updating your branch until it does.
5. Your changes will be reviewed for merging as soon as possible

License

VirtualBow is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.