Errors running the Model.mdl of the example folder

[davidegorbani]

I was trying to run the Model.mdl file of the example folder but I got the following errors in Simulink:

Error:Error reported by S-function 'BlockFactory' in 'Model/w// mask': Failed to create factory Factory error (2): ExampleToolbox: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory Failed to get factory object (className=SignalMath,libName=ExampleToolbox) Failed to get the factory

Error:Error reported by S-function 'BlockFactory' in 'Model/w//o mask': Failed to create factory Factory error (2): ExampleToolbox: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory Failed to get factory object (className=SignalMath,libName=ExampleToolbox) Failed to get the factory

I am using the Matlab version R2023a on Ubuntu 22.04; can this problem be related to my version of Matlab or Ubuntu or is it related to something else?

[traversaro]

Thanks for the issue, that sounds to be a problem in finding the library. Fortunatly we have a simple tool (https://github.com/robotology/blockfactory/pull/61) to debug this without Simulink.

What is the output of:

blockfactory-exists ExampleToolbox SignalMath

in your terminal?

[davidegorbani]

The output is: ERROR: Failed to get factory object (blockName=SignalMath,pluginName=ExampleToolbox)

[traversaro]

What is the value of the env BLOCKFACTORY_PLUGIN_PATH ? See https://github.com/robotology/blockfactory/tree/master/example#configure-the-environment .

[davidegorbani]

I set it to /home/dgorbani/software/robotology-superbuild/build in the ./bashrc but it is still not working and the output of blockfactory-exists ExampleToolbox SignalMath is still: ERROR: Failed to get factory object (blockName=SignalMath,pluginName=ExampleToolbox)

[davidegorbani]

I noticed that if I set export BLOCKFACTORY_PLUGIN_PATH=/home/dgorbani/software/robotology-superbuild/build then the output of blockfactory-exists WBToolbox ForwardKinematics is ERROR: Failed to get factory object (blockName=ForwardKinematics,pluginName=WBToolbox); while if I set export BLOCKFACTORY_PLUGIN_PATH=/home/dgorbani/software/robotology-superbuild/build/install/lib/blockfactory the output of blockfactory-exists WBToolbox ForwardKinematics is SUCCESS: Block "ForwardKinematics" found and loaded from plugin "WBToolbox". I don't know if this can help.

[traversaro]

I noticed that if I set export BLOCKFACTORY_PLUGIN_PATH=/home/dgorbani/software/robotology-superbuild/build then the output of blockfactory-exists WBToolbox ForwardKinematics is ERROR: Failed to get factory object (blockName=ForwardKinematics,pluginName=WBToolbox); while if I set export BLOCKFACTORY_PLUGIN_PATH=/home/dgorbani/software/robotology-superbuild/build/install/lib/blockfactory the output of blockfactory-exists WBToolbox ForwardKinematics is SUCCESS: Block "ForwardKinematics" found and loaded from plugin "WBToolbox". I don't know if this can help.

I guess this is expected. BLOCKFACTORY_PLUGIN_PATH should point to the directory in which the .so to load is found, and in the case of WBToolbox.so the installed version is in /home/dgorbani/software/robotology-superbuild/build/install/lib/blockfactory, but the one in the build directory is not in /home/dgorbani/software/robotology-superbuild/build , it is probably in /home/dgorbani/software/robotology-superbuild/build/src/WBToolbox or some subdirectory. However, to debug now probably it is easier if we concentrate on the ExampleToolbox case.

[traversaro]

I set it to /home/dgorbani/software/robotology-superbuild/build in the ./bashrc but it is still not working and the output of blockfactory-exists ExampleToolbox SignalMath is still: ERROR: Failed to get factory object (blockName=SignalMath,pluginName=ExampleToolbox)

I think I got the misunderstanding. The build that needs to be added to the BLOCKFACTORY_PLUGIN_PATH env variable is the build directory of blockfactory/example one, (that I guess it is in /home/dgorbani/software/robotology-superbuild/src/BlockFactory/example/build), not the build of the superbuild.

[davidegorbani]

Ok, thank you! The right folder is /home/dgorbani/software/robotology-superbuild/build/src/BlockFactory/lib and I also found out that in the CMakelists.txt of the BlockFactory folder is not present a add_subdirectory(example). I added this line and when I recompiled the robotology superbuild I got the following error:

[ 86%] Built target ExampleToolbox
[ 90%] Building CXX object example/matlab/CMakeFiles/AutogenerationExample.dir/AutogenerationExample_grt_rtw/AutogenerationExample.cpp.o
In file included from /home/dgorbani/software/robotology-superbuild/src/BlockFactory/example/matlab/AutogenerationExample_grt_rtw/AutogenerationExample.h:27,
                 from /home/dgorbani/software/robotology-superbuild/src/BlockFactory/example/matlab/AutogenerationExample_grt_rtw/AutogenerationExample.cpp:21:
/home/dgorbani/software/robotology-superbuild/src/BlockFactory/example/matlab/AutogenerationExample_grt_rtw/rtwtypes.h:23:10: fatal error: tmwtypes.h: No such file or directory
   23 | #include "tmwtypes.h"
      |          ^~~~~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
make[5]: *** [example/matlab/CMakeFiles/AutogenerationExample.dir/build.make:76: example/matlab/CMakeFiles/AutogenerationExample.dir/AutogenerationExample_grt_rtw/AutogenerationExample.cpp.o] Error 1
make[4]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:533: example/matlab/CMakeFiles/AutogenerationExample.dir/all] Error 2
make[3]: *** [Makefile:136: all] Error 2
make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/BlockFactory.dir/build.make:85: src/BlockFactory/CMakeFiles/YCMStamp/BlockFactory-build] Error 2
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:1752: CMakeFiles/BlockFactory.dir/all] Error 2
make: *** [Makefile:101: all] Error 2

I commented out the part of the CMakeLists.txt of the example folder in which it autogenerates code and now Model.mdl is working fine.

[traversaro]

I also found out that in the CMakelists.txt of the BlockFactory folder is not present a add_subdirectory(example).

No, the example is mean to be compile on its own as a project separate by BlockFactory, you are supposed to create a separate new build directory in example, did you tried to follow the steps in https://github.com/robotology/blockfactory/tree/master/example#build-the-example ?

[davidegorbani]

Yes, I followed it, I solved the problem adding the right path to the .so file to the variable BLOCKFACTORY_PLUGIN_PATH.

[davidegorbani]

Closing this is issue since this problem is solved