Installation and Verification

Open Inventor by Mercury includes Open Inventor and its extension modules (MeshViz, VolumeViz, DirectViz, HardCopy, TerrainViz, ScaleViz, FXViz, SolidViz, and ReservoirViz).

Microsoft Windows

Administrator privileges

Administrator privileges are required to install Open Inventor by Mercury. If you do not have Administrator privileges on the machine where you are installing, Setup will not be able to create the Open Inventor program group or set up the Open Inventor environment variables at the System (all users) level.

User privileges are administered using the User Manager, which is normally found in the Administrative Tools program group.

Verify adequate disk space

See the System Requirements Overview topic for disk space requirements.

We recommend installing on an NTFS partition in order to take advantage of long file names. The Open Inventor libraries and DLLs have short names to facilitate redistribution, but the Open Inventor include files and example programs have long file names to convey extra information.

Load Open Inventor from your installation media

To install the Open Inventor SDK:

• From CD-ROM:
  1. Insert the Open Inventor CD
     
     
  2. Normally the CD welcome screen will appear. Click on the Install button to proceed.
     
     If for some reason the CD welcome screen does not appear, you can instead run setup.exe as follows:
     • From a command line ("MS-DOS Prompt"),
       
       
     • By double clicking in the Windows Explorer, or
       
       
     • Selecting "Run" from the Task Bar's Start menu.
       
       
  3. Get a password from Mercury and set it using the License Admin application in the Open Inventor program group. For detailed information, use the Help button in the License Admin application.
     
     

• From FTP'ed File:
  Do the following operations from the command line.

  1. Put the ftp'ed file in an empty temporary directory.
     
     
  2. Extract the installation files by executing the self-extracting archive file. Press Finish in the dialog to unpack the archive file. The temporary files that will be unpacked from the archive file will be put in the directory specified by the TEMP environment variable. Please note that this is not the Open Inventor installation directory; this will be chosen later during the setup process. It is possible to have the ftp'ed executable, the temporary unpacked files, and the final install directory on three different disks if you do not have enough space on any one disk.
     
     
  3. Setup will begin automatically after the files have been extracted.
     
     
  4. Once the installation has completed successfully, you may delete the self-extracting executable.
     
     
  5. Get a password from Mercury and set it using the License Admin application in the Open Inventor program group. (You don't need to do this step from the command line.)
     For more information, use the Help button in the License Admin app.

Installation process

1. Information dialog
   Reminder that you must have administrator privileges.
   
   
2. Welcome dialog
   
   
3. License dialog
   
   
4. Installation drive and directory
   Setup will suggest a default location for the installation: e.g., C:\Program Files\Mercury Computer Systems\OIV7.2 and allow you to select a different location if desired. We recommend using a directory name that includes the version number.
   
   
5. Installation Type
   Setup will allow you to choose a Typical, Compact, or Custom installation. For this release, Typical includes the SDK, Documentation, and Examples. We strongly recommend choosing this option.
   
   The Compact installation includes only the Open Inventor SDK (Program, lib, and include directories for Open Inventor and its extensions).
   
   Choosing Custom brings up another dialog box that allows you to select any or all of: the SDK, Documentation, Examples.
   
   
6. Program Group Selection
   Setup will suggest a name for the Open Inventor program group and allow you to change it if desired. The program group and icons are not actually created until after all files are copied.
   
   
7. Copy Files
   Setup will copy all the selected Open Inventor files into the selected installation directory. With one exception (see MSVC++ below), Setup does not put any files in system directories, only in the selected installation directory.
   
   
8. Environment Variables
   Setup will ask if you want Open Inventor environment variables defined for all users on this machine (added to the System environment variables), or the current user only or none of the above. We recommend defining the environment variables for all users to avoid inconvenience.
   
   NOTE 1: Environment variable changes do not affect currently running programs. To ensure changes are fully realized, you may need to:
   • Log out and log in again,
      -OR-
   • Open the Control Panel, open the System applet, and click OK.
   
   NOTE 2: Setup always updates the registry with the OIVHOME environment variable (which contains the installation directory path) and a Mercury Computer Systems S.A. key.
   
   
9. MSVC++ Customization
   If Microsoft Visual C++ has been installed for the current user and executed at least once, Setup will attempt to:
   
   • Add the Open Inventor Program, lib, and include paths to the MSVC++ Tools/Options/Directories dialog box.
   This makes it easier to create Open Inventor projects because you only have to add the appropriate library file names (see Essential MSVC++ settings).
   
   • Add the IVF AppWizard to the MSVC++ New Project list.
   The IVF AppWizard is an application similar to MSVC++'s MFC AppWizard for creating MFC-based Open Inventor applications.
   The IVF AppWizard can create an application with a simple drawing area, a basic viewer (e.g., Examiner Viewer) or a fully functional SceneViewer with the ability to select and edit objects.
   
   NOTE: In some cases Setup will not be able to complete the customization because Visual C++ has not (yet) created the per-user customization file. This is normal if you have never run Visual C++ or have never modified the "VC++ Directories" option. Setup will display a warning dialog in these cases. This is not a serious problem and all the Open Inventor SDK files are correctly installed on your system. If this occurs, simply do this setup manually. See Configuring MSVC++ for Use with Open Inventor for instructions.
   
   
   
10. Program Group
    
    Setup will create the following icons in the Open Inventor group.
    
    
    
    For a more complete list of Open Inventor files, see the topic OIV FILES.
    
    

    Demos	Open Inventor demos
    Documentation	Inventor Help File, online documentation
    License Admin	License administration utility. Complete documentation is available through the Help button.
    Release Notes	Text-only release notes for each product
    Extension Info	Provides info about OpenGL extensions on your system that are/may be used by Open Inventor.
    Qt LargeModelViewer Demo	Demonstrates adaptive viewing and simplification.
    IvTune	3D editor and viewer for Open Inventor scenes
    Readme File	First file to be read
    Scene Viewer	An application for viewing Inventor files. NOTE: SceneViewer supports "drag and drop" of Open Inventor (.iv) files from the Windows Explorer. The first time SceneViewer is executed it also sets up a file "association" so that double clicking on an Open Inventor file will load that file into SceneViewer.
    Tree View	An application for displaying the scene graph structure of an Open Inventor file.

Build InvQtxxx.DLL

NOTE: This step is only required if you plan to use any of the SoQt classes in your application.

Before you can use any of the SoQt classes in your Open Inventor application, you must first build InvQtxxx(D).DLL where xxx is the current version of Open Inventor.

Included with the Open Inventor SDK is InvQtxxxBuilder, a tool for building the corresponding InvQtxxx.DLL using the version of Qt identified by the QTDIR environment variable.

You can rebuild InvQtxxx.DLL whenever you switch to a newer version of Qt. If you are using Visual Studio .NET 2003, Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008, it must be binary compatible with Qt 3.3.6 or Qt 4.2.

Here's what you will need to do:

1. IMPORTANT: Make sure you only have the current INVxxx lib files in your lib directory. (Hide or remove the older INVxxx libs. For the initial release of Open Inventor 7.2, this shouldn't be a concern. However, for patch releases this becomes very important.)
2. Make sure Qt is installed and the QTDIR environment variable is defined.
3. Make sure your compiler is installed.
4. Run the InvQt builder to build the DLLs.

The InvQt builder is in the top level of your installation directory and is named InvQtxxxBuilder.exe -- InvQt720Builder.exe for the initial release of Open Inventor 7.2.

A single prebuilt InvQtxxx.DLL is delivered with the Open Inventor SDK to allow people who don't have any Qt to run (but not build) the pre-built Qt applications (for example, the QtLargeModelViewer demo).

Set up the password

Your Open Inventor software is computer ID locked. Please read the Password section for more details.

Check the installation

In the Open Inventor Program folder, run SceneViewer.exe to check if the installation has been successful.

Essential MSVC++ Settings for an Open Inventor Project

There are numerous ways to create an Open Inventor project in Visual C++.
You can use the IVF AppWizard to create a new project complete with skeleton source files and project or makefile ready to build.
You can also modify one of the provided Open Inventor make files or project files for your own project. You can also create simple projects from scratch or add Open Inventor support to an existing project.
Here are some guidelines for Open Inventor projects.

• Run-Time Library
  Open Inventor is compiled with (and absolutely requires) the runtime library option Multithreaded DLL (or Debug Multithreaded DLL).
  The IVF AppWizard selects this setting automatically.
  You must select this setting manually if your project was not created with the IVF AppWizard.
  

  Visual Studio 2003 and 2005
  

  1. In the Project menu, select Properties.
  2. In the left pane of the Property Pages dialog, open the C/C++ folder.
  3. In the left pane, click on Code Generation.
  4. In the right pane, click on Runtime Library, and from the list box, select Multi-threaded DLL (or Multi-threaded Debug DLL for the debug target).

• Open Inventor Libraries
  The Open Inventor header files (since version 2.2) contain #pragma statements that automatically request the linker to search the necessary libraries.
  
  One exception is "UNIX style" programs (i.e. programs that have a main function), which are Windows applications, not console applications. These applications must include INVU720(D).LIB in the link string because they require a WinMain function which is supplied by the INVU library. Generally we recommend using a console application for this type of project.
  
  NOTE: For UNIX style programs that do have a main and that are Windows apps, we now recommend using SoWinApp.h in your application to simplify some of the housekeeping details. It has pragma statements to include the current version of INVUxxx.LIB and INVUxxxD.LIB. It also has the following statements so you no longer need to insert them directly in your code:
  

           #ifdef WIN32
             #  define main ivMain
           #endif 

Configuring MSVC++ for Use with Open Inventor

In the event that it becomes necessary to configure Visual C++ manually, follow the instructions below (the installation program configures it automatically if Microsoft Visual C++ has been installed).
Alternatively, you can reinstall Open Inventor and the correct versions of the files will be copied automatically.

Configuring Visual Studio 2003, 2005 and 2008

1. Add include files and library files.
   Pull down the Tools menu, and select Options...
   In the left pane, click on the Projects and Solutions folder, then select VC++ Directories.
   In the right pane, in the "Show Directories for" scrolling region, select Include files.
   Click the New button and enter the directory path of the Open Inventor include directory (e.g., C:\Program Files\Mercury Computer Systems\OIV7.2\include).
   
   In "Show Directories for", select Library files.
   Click the New button and enter the directory path of the Open Inventor lib directory (e.g., C:\Program Files\Mercury Computer Systems\OIV7.2\lib).
   
   Click OK to dismiss the Options... window.
   
   

2. The IVF AppWizard is automatically installed during the Open Inventor installation except if Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 or 2005 is not detected on your system. In this case, the IvfWiz directory is created in your Open Inventor installation, and you will need to execute the following steps:
   
   

   1. Go to IvfWiz in the Open Inventor directory.
      For example, C:\Program Files\Mercury Computer Systems\OIV7.2\IvfWiz\
   2. Copy the contents of the VCProjects folder to the VCProjects folder in the directory where Visual Studio is installed.
      For example, C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\VCProjects\ or
      C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2005\VC\VCProjects\
   3. Copy the contents of the VCwizards folder to the Vc7\VCWizards folder in the directory where Visual Studio is installed.
      For example, C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\VCWizards\ or
      C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2005\VC\VCWizards\

   The wizard will be available the next time that you select File, New Project in Visual C++ Projects, IVF AppWizard 7.2.

Un-installing Open Inventor

Open Inventor can be removed with the Add/Remove Programs applet from the Control Panel group. From the Install/Uninstall tab, select OpenInventor 7.2 from the scrolled list and then press the Add/Remove button to uninstall Open Inventor 7.2.

UNIX Platforms

Root privilege is not required to install Open Inventor.

Verify adequate disk space

See the System Requirements Overview topic for disk space requirements.

Select an installation directory

You can install the Open Inventor SDK anywhere on your system. It is highly recommended that you use an empty directory for your new Open Inventor installation. The directory may have any name you like. We suggest you choose the name "OpenInventor" with the current version number appended. For example, "OpenInventor720".

NOTE: Open Inventor does not install any files in system directories (for example /usr/lib and /usr/include).

Create the installation directory and make it the current directory:

mkdir OpenInventor720
cd OpenInventor720

Load Open Inventor from your installation media

To install from the FTP package or from CD, you will need to uncompress and untar the files:

If the file is suffixed .tar.gz:

gunzip < tarfile_name.tar.gz | tar xvf -

The package organization from the FTP looks like the following (shorter names from the CD-ROM):

• OIV720xxx_sdk.tar.gz
  This package contains the complete SDK including all data files and demo files for Open Inventor by Mercury (Open Inventor, MeshViz, VolumeViz, DirectViz, HardCopy, TerrainViz, ScaleViz, FXViz, and SolidViz).
  xxx is platform dependent.
  
  

See the README file on ftp or on the CD-ROM for more information on packaging.

Notes:

• By default, gunzip is installed on all UNIX systems.
• On IBM AIX, Open Inventor needs to use the shared (not static) OpenGL library.
  But only a static OpenGL library is provided: /usr/lib/libGL.a
  To build the shared OpenGL library from the static one, do the following:
  1. cd OpenInventor720/lib
  2. ar x /usr/lib/libGL.a
  3. mv shr.o libGL.so

Set up the password

Your Open Inventor software is computer ID locked. Please read the Password section for more details.

Set the environment variables

Open Inventor environment variables

To use Open Inventor, all users must initialize Open Inventor environment variables. Set the following environment variable to compile, link, and run programs:

• OIVHOME to <path_to_your_Open_Inventor_installation>
  For example,
  setenv OIVHOME /usr/local/OpenInventor

Other optional environment variables specific to Open Inventor and its extensions can be set. Please refer to SoPreferences in the Reference Manual for more information.

System environment variables

• On UNIX systems, the shared library path must be specified. The library path contains the list of directories to search for the shared libraries. On Sun, SGI, and Linux, the environment variable name is LD_LIBRARY_PATH.
  
  • For example, to set the library path:
    setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:${OIVHOME}/lib
    
• MOTIFHOME should be set to specify where to find the Motif directory (contains include and lib directories for Motif).
  
  • For example, on Linux:
    setenv MOTIFHOME /usr
    
• OGLHOME should be set to specify where to find the OpenGL directory (contains include and lib directories for OpenGL).
  
  • For example, on Solaris:
    setenv OGLHOME /usr/openwin
    
• XAPPLRESDIR must be set to $OIVHOME/app-defaults to use the localized resource files (see X11 documentation). To use a specific language, you will need to create a link to the desired localized file (English is the default). For example,
  1. cd $OIVHOME/app-defaults
  2. rm Inventor
  3. ln -s Inventor.french Inventor
     
     
  NOTE: On SGI, you must hide or remove the Inventor resource file provided by SGI. Go to the /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults directory and rename Inventor to Inventor.hide (or the name of your choosing).
  
  NOTE: If you see that "Iv" is prepended to the labels and menu items in your Open Inventor viewer, it most likely means that you did not set XAPPLRESDIR (or, on SGI, you did not hide the Inventor file that SGI provides).

Check the installation

The $OIVHOME/src/Inventor/verifs directory contains a test program. To check that the installation is correct, do the following:

1. cd $OIVHOME/src/Inventor/verifs
2. make verifs
3. ./verifs

The program opens a window and displays a red cone.

NOTE: We assume here that all the required environment variables are set correctly.

Build the demos

Open Inventor demonstration and example programs are provided with standard Imakefiles and their configuration templates for each platform (look in $OIVHOME/config). Platform-dependent variables are stored in $OIVHOME/config/Inventor.mak. The Makefiles have already been built from the Imakefiles so you do not need to build them yourself.

To build an Open Inventor demonstration or example program, simply cd to the appropriate directory and type "make".

To build all demonstration programs for Open Inventor or one of its extensions, cd to the appropriate directory and type "make all". For example, to build all Open Inventor example programs:

1. cd $OIVHOME/src/Inventor
2. make all

NOTE: Some of the Open Inventor programs that we distribute (primarily demo programs) depend on the libwidget.a file. If you build the programs individually rather than using the "make all" command shown above, you will need to build the library in the samples/widgets directory before you can build these programs.

Linux

Root privileges

In order to install Open Inventor, you must be allowed to write into the installation directory. If the location you have chosen (e.g., /usr/local) requires root privileges, then you must have root privileges to do the installation (and subsequent upgrades or uninstallation).

Verify adequate disk space

See the System Requirements Overview topic for disk space requirements.

Select an installation directory

You can install the Open Inventor SDK anywhere on your system. It is highly recommended that you use an empty directory for your new Open Inventor installation. The directory may have any name you like. We suggest you choose the name "OpenInventor" with the current version number appended. For example, "OpenInventor720".

The default installation directory is /usr/local. To install in this directory, you will need root privileges.

Load Open Inventor from your installation media

The Open Inventor SDK is distributed as an RPM (Red Hat Package Manager file). This is a powerful and convenient way of handling software distribution and installation on Linux systems.

The full package name is:

<product name>-<major release number>-<platform label>.rpm

Platform label may be i386 (P4), ia64 (Itanium), or x86_64 (AMD64 and Xeon64).

• To install the Open Inventor rpm package in the default location (/usr/local):
  
  rpm -ivh OpenInventor-7.2.0-RHEL3.0.gcc3.2.3.i386.rpm
  
  (-ivh means install, verbose, show installation progress)
  
  
• To install the Open Inventor rpm package in a specified location:
  
  rpm -ivh --prefix YourDirectory OpenInventor-7.2.0-RHEL3.0.gcc3.2.3.i386.rpm
  
  (-ivh means install, verbose, show installation progress, --prefix specifies the directory where the files will be installed)

NOTE: If you see a "Failed dependencies" error message when you install the Open Inventor rpm package, you will need to add the --nodeps flag:

rpm -ivh --nodeps OpenInventor-7.2.0-RHEL3.0.gcc3.2.3.i386.rpm

(--nodeps means no dependency check)

This kind of problem may occur if no OpenMotif rpm is installed on the system.

Set up the password

Your Open Inventor software is computer ID locked. Please read the Password section for more details.

Set the environment variables

This step is the same for UNIX and Linux platforms. Please see the UNIX text for details.

Check the installation

This step is the same for UNIX and Linux platforms. Please see the UNIX text for details.

Build the demos

This step is the same for UNIX and Linux platforms. Please see the UNIX text for details.

Un-installing Open Inventor

To uninstall Open Inventor, use the following RPM command:

rpm -e OpenInventor

Summary of RPM commands

• To install the Open Inventor rpm package:
  rpm -iv OpenInventor-7.2.x86_64.rpm
  (iv means install and verbose)
  
  
• To get information about it:
  rpm -qi OpenInventor
  (qi means query information)
  
  
• To get the list of files:
  rpm -ql OpenInventor
  (ql means query list)
  
  
• To uninstall it:
  rpm -e OpenInventor
  (e means erase)
  
  
• To upgrade it:
  rpm -Uv OpenInventor-7.5-3.x86_64.rpm
  (Uv means Upgrade and verbose)
  
  

Passwords & Licensing

Set up the password

Your Open Inventor software is computer ID locked. Computer ID locking is a form of software license control that allows Open Inventor to run only on specifically licensed systems. Each time Open Inventor runs, it checks for a valid password. By default, it looks in the file password.dat in the license directory of the Open Inventor installation.

On Microsoft Windows, in the directory %OIVHOME%\License, the program Ladmin.exe is a license manager program for entering your licenses. It is preferable and simpler to use this program on Microsoft Windows.

On non-Windows platforms, you MUST modify the password file password.dat in the license directory of your Open Inventor installation to contain valid password(s).

If you have not already received your password from Mercury, you will need to contact us to request one (see Obtaining a password from Mercury Computer Systems). You must provide your customer number and your computer identifier (see Obtaining your computer ID).

See also FLEXnet licensing for floating licensing information (available for run-time licenses only).

Obtaining a password from Mercury Computer Systems

To request the password, please contact Mercury Computer Systems:

From North, South, and Central America

• Email: 3d_license@mc.com
• Phone: +1 978 967 3206
• Fax: +1 978 967 3303
  
  

From Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Australasia

• Email: 3d_license_europe@mc.com
• Phone: +33 556 13 37 71
• Fax: +33 556 13 02 10

We will need the following information to create the password:

1. The name and version number of each product for which you are requesting a password.
   
   
2. Your name and company name.
   
   
3. Your Mercury Computer Systems Sales Order #.
   
   
4. Your computer ID (See Obtaining your computer ID) below for instructions.
   
   
5. Your phone number and/or FAX number, in case we need more information.
   
   
6. Your email address.

Obtaining your computer ID

• On Microsoft Windows
  
  The computer ID is computed by the License Tool.
  
  
  1. Launch LAdmin.exe in the License directory
  2. Click in the MCS Computer ID box (on the bottom right of the dialog).
     
     
• On UNIX, Linux
  
  The computer ID is returned by the following command:
  
  
  • $OIVHOME/license/MCScomputerID