Building AliceVision

[Jack Starkey]

Apologies, I'm not familiar with building C++ projects, vcpkg and cmake. I am following the instructions on github (https://github.com/alicevision/AliceVision/blob/develop/INSTALL.md)

Sections "Build instructions" and "Building the project using vcpkg (recommended on Windows)".

I have git checked out AliceVision to v2.4.0 and vcpkg to the rough same date.

Once cmake has been run and the vs solution is generated, building the solution in visual studio produces 335 errors - all linker errors (LNK2038, LNK2019, LNK2001, LNK1120). I have noted the majority of the generated vs projects have the 'Use Vcpkg' properity to 'No', although some do have 'Yes'.

Could anyone help me solve these errors?

I also don't really understand all the generated projects? What are ALL_BUILD, INSTALL, and ZERO_CHECK, and uninstall?

Thanks,

J

[Owen]

Does the Windows installer not work for you?

(I guess it's not an actual installer, but the download for Window where you just run the .exe)

[Nicolas S.]

there is no .exe file... when we download for windows, I get a zipped folder, and apparantly I need to build the thing. please help, I'm not a software engineer

[Owen]

Extract the zip file somewhere (doesn't matter where)

In that folder you should get a folder for the current version, "Meshroom-2021.1.0" and in THAT folder is your exe file. Just run it. Once running, you can pin it to your taskbar if you'd like. (there is no installer for Meshroom)

At this point, you might consider buying a more refined software package. It might be easier for you.

Or maybe search for Gleb Alexandrov - he has some content on YouTube, but also offers a full workflow series on photogrammetry for like 60 bucks or so.

Photogrammetry isn't like Microsoft Word - it's a little more complex than that with a lot of tweaking of a lot of parameters. The Alicevision devs have created an amazingly powerful software but it's not click, click model! Just realize that going in.

[Chris Clawson]

Download the zip file. The links are at: https://alicevision.org/#meshroom . This is a new version 2023.1.0 . If you are running Windows, make sure you use the button with the Windows logo (to the left). The other link button is for Mac users.

Extract the directory to a folder somewhere. An extracted folder will be created, called something, like Meshroom-2023.1.0. Open that directory. Inside the file to run is Meshroom.exe (or just Meshroom, if you have the file extensions hidden in your Windows setup). It should be marked with a blue icon. Double click that to run Meshroom.

If you are just learning Meshroom, you should first download and try the demo image files. Here are the links:

dataset_monstree: https://github.com/alicevision/dataset_monstree/archive/refs/heads/master.zip

dataset_buddha: https://github.com/alicevision/dataset_buddha/archive/refs/heads/master.zip

These files are good examples of the method you should use in taking pictures for your own reconstructions. They are also useful for troubleshooting problems on this forum. Remember that your digital camera pictures include needed "metadata", which tells Meshroom details about the camera, lens and other important things. For now, avoid editing any of your images, or you will probably lose this important information!

Meshroom saves a group of folders inside a "MeshroomCache" folder, which is created at the same location you save your working file from Meshroom (which has an extension of '.mg'). Each time you run a Meshroom file from this saved location, another set of new directories are written into each of these main 'category' directories, and have names, like CameraInit, DepthMap, DepthMapFilter, etc. Each of these 'Category' directories will have one additional directory, for each time you run Meshroom from this location. These have ugly names, like "8f737a077838590771cf657644b19761f9a8fd4b". If you have used this location more than once, look for the directory with the same time stamp as the job you are running (usually the most recent). 

Your finished, fully textured mesh will be in the MeshroomCache/Texturing/8f737a077_MY_CURRENT_JOB_DIRECTORY_1f9a8fd4b directory as an .obj file.

This texturedMesh.obj file can be imported to Blender and edited any way you want. This directory folder also includes all the image (texture) maps which 'paint' your mesh, so if you are importing from Blender, make sure you import the texturedMesh .obj from this location, or move both the mesh as well as the images to a new location.

***

By the way, Microsoft likes to keep you dumb. Understanding and identifying these various file types is important for this kind of work. If you do not see your file extensions (.jpg, .exe, .exr, .obj, .mg, etc.) in file views, you should do a search for " Show and hide file extensions in Windows" and set your computer to show these when viewing directories in Windows Explorer..