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Download! Installation Compilation SimSect ESP article

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This document explains how to get SimSect++ to work properly, with all the visualization tools enabled.

SimSect++ uses Geomview as its visualization engine. As a consequence, it requires geomview to be available on the machine that the executable RHexLib programs are going to run in. To test this, type the following command. As a result, Geomview should run and three windows should pop up.

# geomview

If you do not have geomview installed, you can download and install it from the Geometry Center's Geomview page, where you can also find instructions on its installation. They only have an older version of Geomview. If that version does not work with your system, you can download newer versions from www.geomview.org.

Once you get Geomview installed, you have to make sure that it is in your path. Depending on where Geomview was installed, what you will need to do will be different.

• If Geomview is already in one of the standard directories such as /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin, you might not need to do anything. Check by trying to execute geomview from the shell prompt.
• If you installed Geomview in your home directory, say ~/Geomview, then you need to add the following line to your .cshrc (or .bashrc)

setenv PATH $PATH:$HOME/Geomview/bin

( or export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/Geomview/bin for bash)

 

After logging out and logging back in, you should be able to run geomview from the shell prompt. Note that the use of $HOME instead of the tilde (~) to refer to your home directory is necessary because RHexLib uses some system calls which require the full path name to be available in the PATH environment variable rather than just the tilde character.

At this point, you should be able to use RHexLib with SimSect++, with all the visualization tools active.To test whether this works or not, carry out the following steps. This assumes that you have successfully (without any errors) completed the installation instructions.

# cd ~/RHex/RHexLib/examples

# ./poscontrol_test

As a result, you should see a bunch of messages, together with Geomview running, visualizing a hexapod robot suspended in the air, rotating all six legs at six different speeds. Depending on the speed of your machine, it might be kind of slow.