Writing LidarView plugin

[land_mn (Moshe Tal)]

Hi,

I successfully wrote a LidarView plugin (in Windows) by following the structure of the current plugins.

Still, I have a few issues that can make my further work easier.

1. The structure of the plugin is complex, something like this:

(LidarView_source_root)
  Plugins
    1st_lvl_plugin_dir
      CMakeLists.txt
      Plugin
        CMakeLists.txt
        paraview.plugin
        3rd_lvl_plugin_dir
                CMakeLists.txt
          vtk.module
          4th_lvl_plugin_dir(s)
            *.cxx
            *.h
            (other source file)

Is this essential? Are all files needed? Or can it be simpler?

2. Where is the right place to add “include directories” and how?

Specifically - I want to add include paths to: lqHelper.h from LVCore and pqApplicationCore.h from ParaView. Could these be referred to by a predefined CMake variable?

3. To make the plugin compile I had to manually edit the CMake files of Paraview. Is there a proper way to pass variables to Paraview build from LidarView’s cmake configuration\command?
4. About the newly released Lidarview version, I can’t find an offline installer for Qt 5.15.7 either in the url you mentioned in the LidarView_Developer_Guide.md, nor on the Qt site. Building this version of Qt from source code gave a directory structure that is difficult to include.

[mwestphal (Mathieu Westphal (Kitware))]

@Gatien_Ferret @Timothee_Couble

[Timothee_Couble (Timothée Couble (Kitware))]

Hi @land_mn,

@land_mn

The structure of the plugin is complex, something like this:

I think the only essential directory are the 2nd_lvl_plugin_dir and 3rd_lvl_plugin_dir as paraview.plugin and vtk.module file will check for associated CMakeLists.txt. This structure is generally the one used to add a plugin in ParaView and LidarView. If you want to remove one one level it would be the 4th_lvl_plugin_dir.

@land_mn

Where is the right place to add “include directories” and how

Theses files are only available on paraview and lidarview plugin side (not in the vtk module), you can checkout here for an example that uses vtk module and add a qt component. (There a lot of plugin example in the ParaView Examples/Plugins directory)

@land_mn

To make the plugin compile I had to manually edit the CMake files of Paraview. Is there a proper way to pass variables to Paraview build from LidarView’s cmake configuration\command?

You should be able to compile your plugin with LidarView by copying VelodynePlugin CMakeList, changes the name and a add_subdirectory(Plugins/YourPlugin) in LidarView root CMakeLists.txt.

@land_mn

About the newly released Lidarview version

I just added a documentation about how to install qt5 here with the correct links.

Let met know if you have any other questions.