Move Libs into a stand-alone repository / project

[bilke]

First, thanks for these great additions to VTK! I can imagine some really good reasons to implement some of MSVTKs functionality into my application. Therefore it would be nice if the contents of the Libs-folder would be moved to a stand-alone repository / project. Then other projects could be easily integrate this stuff.

[finetjul]

Thanks for your interest in MSVTK.

Are you interested i a Libs project so you could do git submodule in your project? is this a correct assumption ? I'm not sure it would make things easier. For example, the libs are using some custom CMake macros, having a repo of just the libs would prevent those macros from being reachable. The standard way to integrate projects is with the CMake ExternalProject (Superbuild) mechanism, and this is what MSVTK is doing. Let us know if you have issues with it.

[bilke]

Thanks for your answers. Yes I would like to have the Libs in my project with git submodule. Yes I am aware that I can add MSVTK with ExternalProject to my project. But this also builds VTK. Is it possible to use an already found VTK (like USE_SYSTEM_qt in the ParaView superbuild)?

Are there any plans to incorporate this functionality into the normal VTK repository?

[finetjul]

Yes, you can tell MSVTK to not build VTK but use an existing VTK build. You need to configure MSVTK with VTK_DIR. At the command line: ccmake ../MSVTK -DVTK_DIR:PATH=/my/path/to/vtk-build/ or pass simply -DVTK_DIR:PATH=/my/path/to/vtk-build/ when configuring MSVTK in the ExternalProject cmake macro.

There are some long term plans to incorporate the MSVTK into VTK, but nothing at short term yet. This all depends of future projects and proposals. Feel free to contact us if you want to discuss funding opportunities.

[bilke]

Thanks a lot!