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https://github.com/gitgnu/gnu_pyformex


https://github.com/gitgnu/gnu_pyformex

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README 

          
.. $Id:$    -*- rst -*-



..

  This file is part of pyFormex 1.0.2  (Thu Jun 18 15:35:31 CEST 2015)

  pyFormex is a tool for generating, manipulating and transforming 3D

  geometrical models by sequences of mathematical operations.

  Home page: http://pyformex.org

  Project page:  http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/pyformex/

  Copyright 2004-2015 (C) Benedict Verhegghe (benedict.verhegghe@feops.com)

  Distributed under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later.



  This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify

  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by

  the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or

  (at your option) any later version.



  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,

  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of

  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the

  GNU General Public License for more details.



  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License

  along with this program.  If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.



What is pyFormex?

=================

pyFormex is a tool for generating, manipulating and transforming large

geometrical models of 3D structures by sequences of mathematical

transformations. Thanks to a powerful (Python based) scripting language,

pyFormex is very well suited for the automated design of spatial frame

structures. It provides a wide range of operations on surface meshes,

like STL type triangulated surfaces. There are provisions to import medical

scan images. pyFormex can also be used as a pre- and post-processor for

Finite Element analysis programs. Finally, it might be used just for

creating some nice graphics.



Using pyFormex, the topology of the elements and the final geometrical form

can be decoupled. Often, topology is created first and then mapped onto the

geometry. Through the scripting language, the user can define any sequence

of transformations, built from provided or user defined functions.

This way, building parametric models becomes a natural thing.



While pyFormex is still under development (see the project page at

http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/pyformex/), it already provides a

fairly stable scripting language and an OpenGL GUI environment for

displaying and manipulating the generated structures.



Installation

============



We detail here only the installation on Linux platforms.



Prerequisites

-------------

Essential:



- python: http://www.python.org  (version 2.4 or higher; 2.5 recommended)

- numpy: /http://numpy.scipy.org/ (version 1.0 or higher; 1.1 recommended)

- Qt4: http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt

- PyOpenGL: http://pyopengl.sourceforge.net/

- PySide: http://www.pyside.org/



To compile the acceleration library (highly recommended!), you will also

need the appropriate header Python and OpenGL header files.



Further, we recommend to install the following for extended functionality:



- python-gnuplot

- python-doc

- python-scipy

- units

- imagemagick

- admesh



For the following extensions, which are not easily packaged format,

an install script is provided in this distribution.



- calpy

- pygl2ps

- gts

- tetgen



Easy way to install prerequisites on Debian GNU/Linux or Ubuntu

---------------------------------------------------------------

On Debian systems (and Debian-derivatives like Ubuntu) you can install

all basic prerequisites and their dependencies with the command::



  apt-get install python-pyside python-numpy



If you want to compile the acceleration library (which is highly recommended) you also need the header files::



  apt-get install python-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libglu1-mesa-dev



Install the extras::



  apt-get install python-gnuplot python-doc python-scipy units imagemagick admesh



Howto install pyFormex:

-----------------------

If a previous version of pyFormex was already installed on your system,

you may want to remove the older version first before installing the new one.

See further (Howto uninstall pyFormex)



We suppose you have installed all the prerequisites and downloaded the

pyformex source tarball: pyformex-VERSION.tar.gz



Unpack the pyFormex source tarball::



  tar xvzf pyformex-VERSION.tar.gz



Go to the created pyformex directory::



  cd pyformex-VERSION



Do (with root privileges) ::



  python setup.py install --prefix=/usr/local



This will install pyFormex under /usr/local/. You can change the prefix

to install in some other place.



After installation you can remove the directory where you unpacked the tarball.



The installation procedure installs everything into a single directory,

and creates a symlink to the executable in /usr/local/bin.

You can use the command pyformex --whereami to find out where pyFormex

is installed.



If you have xdg-utils on your system, the installation procedure will also

install a menu and desktop starter for pyFormex.



Howto uninstall pyFormex:

-------------------------

A pyFormex installation of version 0.5 or later can be removed with the command ::



  pyformex --remove



and then answering 'yes' to the question.



Howto install the extra packages

--------------------------------

pyFormex makes use of extra software components to enhance its functionality.

While they are not required for the core operation of pyFormex, many users may

want to install them. Some of these extras (admesh, units) can easily be

installed from your regular distribution repositories.

Some extra components however either are not available in packaged format, or

the existing packages do not work together well with pyFormex.

For these components, the pyFormex distribution contains an adhoc install

procedure to help our users with the installation. The procedures are located

in dedicated subdirectories of the pyformex-VERSION/pyformex/extra directory

of the unpacked release tree. Each subdirectory contains a ``README`` file

with installation instructions. It the directory contains a ``Makefile``, this

usually boils down to the usual::



  make

  make install



Else, an install script ``install.sh`` is included and installation can be done

with by executing it from within the subdirectory, with root privileges and with a single parameter 'all'::



  (sudo) ./install.sh all



Prerequisites: on Debian::



  apt-get install gcc g++ pkg-config make

  apt-get install python-dev libglu1-mesa-dev

  apt-get install libgts-dev libdxflib-dev



- gts: Installs some programs to do operations on triangulated surfaces. You need to have the ``libgts`` and its header files installed.

- dxfparser: Installs the command ``pyformex-dxfparser``, to preprocesses AutoCAD .DXF files for import into pyFormex. You need to have the ``libdxflib`` and its header files installed.

- postabq: Installs the command ``pyformex-postabq``, to preprocess Abaqus output files (.fil) for import into pyFormex.

- gl2ps: Image output to in vector formats (PS, EPS, PDF and SVG). Requires

  a Python interface, provided by our install procedure.

- calpy: Simple finite element simulation framework. Needed for the ``*_calpy``

  examples. Has to be installed from source, because is has to be compiled

  against the same numpy version as pyFormex itself.



Running pyFormex from sources

-----------------------------

If the officially released pyFormex packages are not suitable for your needs,

you can try installing pyFormex from the source in the git repository.

Besides the basic prerequisites (see above), you will also need to have

git installed.



The `GIT repository`_ on the developer site is accessible anonymously.

The command ::



  git clone git://git.savannah.nongnu.org/pyformex.git MYDIR



will checkout the source to a local directory ``MYDIR``. Provided you have all the prerequisites installed, pyFormex can then be run directly from the checked out source with the command::



  MYDIR/pyformex/pyformex



If you want to use the compiled accelerator library however, you will have to

create it first::



  cd MYDIR

  make lib



Once you have a checked-out source tree, you can easily sync it to the latest

repository version by just issuing the following command from your checkout

directory::



  git pull



Documentation

=============



The documentation is included with the pyFormex distribution. Execute the command

pyformex --whereami to find out where the pyformex files are

installed. The pyformex path contains a directory doc/html with the

full html ocumentation.

When working with the pyFormex GUI, you can load this local documentation in your browser

using the help menu, or view the online documentation at

http://pyformex.org/doc.



To use pyFormex, you create a script that builds a structure layout and

geometry. Look at the examples to get the feeling of how it is working.

Use the File->Play menu selection to display the structure.



The examples and the Python source are relatively well documented.



Help and Feedback

=================



For any questions or feedback, please go to the pyFormex support tracker at

http://savannah.nongnu.org/support/?group=pyformex



If you find any bugs or malfunctions in pyFormex, please submit them to

the pyFormex Bug tracker http://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=pyformex



.. _`SVN repository`: http://savannah.nongnu.org/svn/?group=pyformex



.. target-notes::



Copyright

=========



pyFormex is distributed under the GNU GPL version 3 or later.



The main author claims that he wrote this software in his free time,

for his joy, not as a commissioned task. Any copyright claims made by

his employer (previous, current r future) should therefore be considered

void.



Over the years, other members of the pyFormex team have made valuable

contributions. These were made with full consent of the contributor that

they could be used at will inside the pyFormex project and were free of

other copyright claims.



.. End