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https://github.com/liangliangnan/easy3d

A lightweight, easy-to-use, and efficient C++ library for processing and rendering 3D data
https://github.com/liangliangnan/easy3d

3d-modeling computer-graphics data-structure geometry-processing graph mesh opengl point-cloud polyhedral-mesh reconstruction rendering shader surface-mesh viewer visualization

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A lightweight, easy-to-use, and efficient C++ library for processing and rendering 3D data

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README 

        


       


       





![3D model generated and rendered by Easy3D](resources/images/logo.jpg)



#### For 3D modeling, geometry processing, and rendering, designed with emphasis on simplicity and efficiency. 

Easy3D is implemented in C++ and comes with **Python bindings**. It is intended for research and educational purposes, but it is also a good starting point for developing sophisticated 3D applications. 

Compared to existing geometry processing libraries (such as [PMP](http://www.pmp-library.org/) and [libigl](https://github.com/libigl/libigl/)) that focus on the algorithm aspect, Easy3D also provides a wider range of functionalities for user interactions and rendering.



 

      




### Key features

* Efficient data structures for representing and managing 3D models such as point clouds, polygonal surfaces 

  (e.g., triangle meshes), polyhedral volumes (e.g., tetrahedral meshes), and graphs. 

  Easy to add/access arbitrary types of per-element properties. Non-manifoldness is automatically resolved when 

  loading models from files ...

  

* A set of widely used algorithms, e.g., point cloud normal estimation/re-orientation, Poisson surface reconstruction, 

  RANSAC, mesh simplification, subdivision, smoothing, parameterization, remeshing, and more (the implementation of

  several surface mesh processing algorithms were taken from [PMP](http://www.pmp-library.org/)).

   

* A bunch of rendering techniques, e.g., point/line imposters, ambient occlusion (SSAO), hard shadow (shadow maps), 

  soft shadow (PCSS), eye-dome lighting (for rendering point clouds without normal information), transparency (average 

  color blending, dual depth peeling), and more.

   

* High-level encapsulation of OpenGL and GLSL for convenient and efficient rendering (based on modern and faster

  programmable-shader-style rendering, i.e., no fixed function calls). Client code does not need to touch the low-level 

  APIs of OpenGL. 

  

* Step-by-step tutorials demonstrating various uses of the API, to get acquainted with the data structures, rendering techniques, and algorithms 

  for 3D modeling and geometry processing. 

  

* Very easy to use as a callable library (usually only a few lines of code).

  

* A viewer that can be used directly to visualize 3D scenes in various formats, which can also be easily extended. 

  For window/GUI creation, Easy3D currently supports [GLFW](https://www.glfw.org/) (e.g., [the default viewer](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/blob/main/easy3d/viewer)), 

  [Qt](https://www.qt.io/) (see [the Qt viewer](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/tutorials/Tutorial_204_Viewer_Qt)), 

  and [wxWidgets](https://www.wxwidgets.org/) (see [the wxWidgets viewer](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/tutorials/Tutorial_203_Viewer_wxWidgets)).



* A handy tool Mapple created out of the Easy3D library for rendering and processing 3D data.



* Python bindings for Easy3D, which allow you to use Easy3D in Python scripts. 



|              Scalar field                |              Polyhedral mesh              |              Keyframe animation            |

|------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|

| ![](resources/images/mapple-scalar.jpg)  | ![](resources/images/mapple-polymesh.gif) | ![](resources/images/mapple-animation.gif) |



### A glance



Any type of 3D drawables (e.g., points, lines, triangles, and thus point clouds, mesh surfaces, scalar fields, 

and vector fields) can be rendered by writing a few lines of code with Easy3D. For example, the following code renders a 

point cloud as a set of spheres



```c++

// assume your point cloud has been loaded to the viewer

PointsDrawable* drawable = cloud->renderer()->get_points_drawable("vertices");

drawable->set_impostor_type(PointsDrawable::SPHERE); // draw points as spheres.

drawable->set_point_size(3.0f);    // set point size

```

or as a set of surfels (i.e., 3D discs)



```c++ 

drawable->set_impostor_type(PointsDrawable::SURFEL);

``` 



By abstracting geometric elements as one of the above drawables, more general visualization (e.g., vector fields, 

scalar fields) can be done very conveniently.



### Easy3D repository layout

The repository contains a `CMakeLists.txt` file (in the root directory of the repository) that serves as an anchor for 

configuring and building programs, as well as a set of subfolders:

* [`3rd_party`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/3rd_party) - source code of third-party libraries

* [`applications`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/applications) - applications built on top of Easy3D

* [`cmake`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/cmake) - CMake-related configuration files

* [`docs`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/docs) - documentation configuration file (Doxygen)

* [`easy3d`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/easy3d) - source code of Easy3D, implementing the Easy3D modules:

  * [`util`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/easy3d/util) - utilities, e.g., logging, file system, progress, timer.

  * [`core`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/easy3d/core) - basic types and data structures, e.g., point cloud, surface mesh, graph, and polyhedron mesh.

  * [`fileio`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/easy3d/fileio) - functionalities for reading/writing data from/into files.

  * [`kdtree`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/easy3d/kdtree) - a collection of kd-trees.

  * [`algo`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/easy3d/algo) - algorithms for geometry processing.

  * [`algo_ext`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/easy3d/algo_ext) - several extended surface mesh processing algorithms (based on CGAL).

  * [`video`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/easy3d/video) - a class that can encode an image sequence into a video.

  * [`renderer`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/easy3d/renderer) - functionalities and algorithms for rendering and visualization.

  * [`gui`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/easy3d/gui) - tools for user interactions, e.g., picking points, faces, or models.

  * [`viewer`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/easy3d/viewer) - a simple viewer and a composite viewer.

  * [`python`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/python) - Python bindings for Easy3D, and examples.

* [`resources`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/resources) - test data, images, shaders, textures, etc.

* [`tests`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/tests) - a collection of test cases

* [`tutorials`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/tutorials) - a collection of examples (with detailed explanations in code)



### Build Easy3D

Like most software, Easy3D depends on some third-party libraries. Easy3D has made this easier for users by including

the source code of most third-party libraries (for the core functionalities and the basic viewer), and it leaves very 

few optional (for a few additional features that are typically not needed by most users). 



The **optional** third-party libraries are:

- **[CGAL](https://www.cgal.org/) (optional)**: Easy3D has implemented a few algorithms for advanced surface mesh 

  processing, such as surface reorientation, detecting/resolving duplicate vertices/faces and self-intersection, 

  and clipping/splitting/slicing surface meshes. These features are disabled by default (because most users don't 

  need them). To enable these features, you can switch on the CMake option `Easy3D_ENABLE_CGAL` and make sure 

  CGAL ([v5.1 or later](https://github.com/CGAL/cgal/releases)) is installed and visible to CMake. In case you have

  multiple versions of CGAL on your platform, simply provide the path of a suitable one to the CMake variable `CGAL_DIR`.



- **[Qt](https://www.qt.io/) (optional)**: Easy3D supports Qt >= v5.6 ([v5.14.2](https://download.qt.io/archive/qt/5.14/5.14.2/),

  [v5.12.12](https://download.qt.io/archive/qt/5.12/5.12.12/), and [v6.7.3](https://www.qt.io/download-qt-installer-oss)

  have been tested) for UI creation, which can help develop sophisticated applications for 3D data processing and visualization. 

  The Qt support is disabled by default (because most users don't need it). You can switch on the CMake option `Easy3D_ENABLE_QT` 

  to include the examples and applications that depend on Qt (e.g., 

  [`Tutorial_204_Viewer_Qt`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/tutorials/Tutorial_204_Viewer_Qt) and 

  [`Mapple`](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/tree/main/applications/Mapple)).

  

To build Easy3D, you need [CMake](https://cmake.org/download/) (`>= 3.12`) and, of course, a compiler that supports `>= C++11`.



Easy3D has been tested on macOS (Xcode >= 8), Windows (MSVC >=2015 `x64`), and Linux (GCC >= 4.8, Clang >= 3.3). Machines 

nowadays typically provide higher [support](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/compiler_support), so you should be able 

to build Easy3D on almost all platforms.



There are many options to build Easy3D. Choose one of the following (not an exhaustive list):



- Option 1 (purely on the command line): Use CMake to generate Makefiles and then `make` (on Linux/macOS) or `nmake`(on Windows with Microsoft 

  Visual Studio). 

  - On Linux or macOS, you can simply

    ```

        $ cd path-to-root-dir-of-Easy3D

        $ mkdir Release

        $ cd Release

        $ cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..

        $ make

    ```

  - On Windows with Microsoft Visual Studio, use the `x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS XXXX` (**don't** use the x86 one), then

    ```

        $ cd path-to-root-dir-of-Easy3D

        $ mkdir Release

        $ cd Release

        $ cmake -G "NMake Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..

        $ nmake

    ```

  

- Option 2: Use any IDE that can directly handle CMakeLists files to open the `CMakeLists.txt` in the **root** directory of 

  Easy3D. Then you should have obtained a usable project and just build it. I recommend using 

[CLion](https://www.jetbrains.com/clion/) or [QtCreator](https://www.qt.io/product). For Windows users: your IDE must be set for `x64`.

  

- Option 3: Use CMake-Gui to generate project files for your IDE. Then load the project to your IDE and build it. For Windows users: your IDE must be set for `x64`.



Do not have any experience with C/C++ programming? 

Have a look at How to build Easy3D step by 

step.



#### Build and use Python bindings

- Please check [here](./python/ReadMe.md).



### Test Easy3D

A test suite is provided in the [`tests`](./tests) subfolder (and [`test`](./python/test) for Python users), which 

contains a collection of automated test cases (for data structures, IO, algorithms, visualization, etc.) and some 

semi-automated test cases (for GUI-related functionalities that require interactive user input). All cases are 

integrated into the single target `tests`.



To build and run the test suite, download the entire source, use the `CMakeLists.txt` in the root directory of the 

repository, switch on the CMake option `Easy3D_BUILD_TESTS` (which is disabled by default), and run CMake. After CMake, 

you can build ALL or only the `tests` target. Finally, run the `tests` executable (i.e., `YOUR_BUILD_DIRECTORY/bin/tests`) for the test.



### Use Easy3D in your project

This is quite easy, like many other open-source libraries :-) 

After you have built Easy3D, you only need to point `Easy3D_DIR` to your `build` (or the installation) directory of Easy3D when doing cmake. Then the requested Easy3D libraries, including directories and relevant compile definitions of Easy3D, are visible and accessible to your project. Below is an example of using the default Easy3D viewer. 

The `CMakeLists.txt` looks like:

``` cmake

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.12)

project(MyProject)

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)                       # specify C++ standard

find_package(Easy3D COMPONENTS viewer REQUIRED)  # request Easy3D (recommended to request only needed components)

add_executable(Test main.cpp)                    # create an executable target

target_link_libraries(Test easy3d::viewer)       # link to necessary Easy3D modules (add more if needed, e.g., algo)

```

and the `main.cpp` with minimum code:



``` c++

#include 

#include 



int main(int argc, char** argv) {

    easy3d::initialize();

    easy3d::Viewer viewer("Test");

    return viewer.run();

}

```



Using the Python bindings is also straightforward, for example:

``` python

import easy3d



easy3d.initialize()

viewer = easy3d.Viewer("Test")

viewer.add_model(easy3d.directory() + "/data/bunny.ply")

viewer.run()

```



### Documentation

The documentation for Easy3D is available [here](https://3d.bk.tudelft.nl/liangliang/software/easy3d_doc/html/index.html).



The Easy3D Documentation is an ongoing effort with more and more details being added. You can build the latest Easy3D 

documentation from the source code.

Easy3D uses [Doxygen](https://www.doxygen.nl/index.html) (`>= 1.8.3`) to generate documentation from source code. 

To build it from the source code, [install Doxygen](https://www.doxygen.nl/manual/install.html) first. 

Then, switch on the CMake option `` in the main `CMakeList.txt`. Finally, build the `doc` 

target to generate the documentation. 



For Python users, please check these [tutorials](./python/tutorials).



### Questions, new features, bugs, or contributing to Easy3D

See the [Contribution Guide](https://github.com/LiangliangNan/Easy3D/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) for more information.



### License

Easy3D 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. The full text of the license can be

found in the accompanying 'License' file.



### Acknowledgments

The implementation of Easy3D greatly benefited from and was inspired by existing great open-source libraries, such as

[PMP](http://www.pmp-library.org/), [libQGLViewer](http://libqglviewer.com/), [Surface mesh](https://opensource.cit-ec.de/projects/surface_mesh),

and [Graphite](http://graphite.gforge.inria.fr/). In particular, the implementation of several surface mesh 

algorithms was taken (with modifications) from PMP, i.e., simplification, subdivision, smoothing, 

parameterization, remeshing, hole filling, geodesic distances, fairing, curvatures, and triangulation. 

We would like to thank the original authors of these projects for their permissive license terms. 

We also thank the users and contributors for reporting/fixing bugs, testing, and providing valuable feedback and suggestions.



### Citation

If you use Easy3D in scientific work, I kindly ask you to cite it:



```bibtex

@article{easy3d2021,

  title = {Easy3{D}: a lightweight, easy-to-use, and efficient {C}++ library for processing and rendering 3{D} data},

  author = {Liangliang Nan},

  journal = {Journal of Open Source Software}，

  year = {2021},

  volume = {6},

  number = {64},

  pages = {3255},

  doi = {10.21105/joss.03255},

  url = {https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.03255}

}

```

---------



Should you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact me at [email protected]



[Liangliang Nan](https://3d.bk.tudelft.nl/liangliang/)



Dec. 8, 2018