VTK/CSharp/ComingSoon

We are moving the ActiViz .NET source code into the VTK tree under a new Wrapping/CSharp directory.

Stay tuned here for more information, coming soon.

A gerrit topic is now under review for inclusion in VTK 'master':

• http://review.source.kitware.com/#/t/1615

To build VTK with C# wrapping turned on, you should:

• git fetch/checkout/pull the topic from gerrit (follow the above topic link)
• configure it with CMake 2.8.8 or later (preferably the recently released 2.8.10)
• use Visual Studio 2005 or 2008
• have mummy and gccxml built and available for use
• turn on VTK_WRAP_CSHARP
• set AVDN_BUILD_CSHARP_DEBUG to ON if you are going to build a Debug build, and to OFF if you are going to build a Release build

Current directions for building ActiViz .NET are found on the Kitware web pages at http://www.kitware.com/opensource/avdownload.php They still largely apply to VTK with C# wrapping turned on.

The latest patch set in the latest change set of the gerrit topic now includes these items (Dec. 06, 2012):

• enable building the testing and examples (eliminate the early "return()" in the CMakeLists and the comment near it)
• eliminate the "if(0)" chunk
• eliminate the CMake code associated with "abstract" -- it's unused
• rename local CMake vars from "kit" to "module"
• fix indentation near target_link_libraries
• rename "CopyLibraries2" in the CMake code

The latest patch set in the latest change set of the gerrit topic now includes these items (Jan. 04, 2013):

• remove the 3+ M Users Guide, and replace it with a text file that points to the one in the existing activizdotnet.git repo
• include a README file in Wrapping/CSharp that has the directions for building
• mention installing gccxml "as admin" in prerequisites
• mention using sn to disable strong name validation so mummy and ActiViz tests pass without being strong name signed
• Addressed Dave DeMarle's review comments from Dec. 4, 2012. His suggestions are:
  • replace that pdf with a link to it because it is out of date and large
  • explain what you need to know in order to build it somewhat like the prerequisites section of http://www.kitware.com/opensource/avdownload.php
  • expand on how to deal with the required crypto sign

Here is a TO DO list of items that should be addressed before (or soon after) we merge this topic to VTK 'master':

• use PYTHON_EXECUTABLE instead of PYTHON_EXE because the rest of VTK uses that
• get the remaining existing tests passing

 This is due to the new vtk 6 factories. The tests fail when they try to instantiate generic classes and get Null pointers. 
 Dave's latest WIP commit is a workaround that temporarily instantiates classes to make dll load. Need to at least generate that list from vtk modular cmake.

• The csharp PrintAll test has 200 some errors now with vtk6, in 5.8 there were only a handful of classes that failed.
• vtkImageData - make the old code work with new methods (something changed since 5.8...)

 see http://review.source.kitware.com/#/c/8320/2/Wrapping/CSharp/vtkImageData_Extra.cs

• re-write or fix and re-enable the "converted from tcl" tests... both the automatically python-script-converted ones, and the manually translated ones