README.md
1# Instant Meshes
2[](https://travis-ci.org/wjakob/instant-meshes)
3[](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/wjakob/instant-meshes/branch/master)
4
5<img width="170" height="166" src="https://github.com/wjakob/instant-meshes/raw/master/resources/icon.png">
6
7This repository contains the interactive meshing software developed as part of the publication
8
9> **Instant Field-Aligned Meshes**<br/>
10> Wenzel Jakob, Marco Tarini, Daniele Panozzo, Olga Sorkine-Hornung<br/>
11> In *ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH Asia 2015)*<br/>
12> [PDF](http://igl.ethz.ch/projects/instant-meshes/instant-meshes-SA-2015-jakob-et-al.pdf),
13> [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6wtw6W4x3I),
14> [Project page](http://igl.ethz.ch/projects/instant-meshes/)
15
16
17##### In commercial software
18
19Since version 10.2, Modo uses the Instant Meshes algorithm to implement its
20automatic retopology feature. An interview discussing this technique and more
21recent projects is available [here](https://www.foundry.com/trends/design-visualisation/mitsuba-renderer-instant-meshes).
22
23## Screenshot
24
25
26
27## Pre-compiled binaries
28
29The following binaries (Intel, 64 bit) are automatically generated from the latest GitHub revision.
30
31> [Microsoft Windows](https://instant-meshes.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/Release/instant-meshes-windows.zip)<br/>
32> [Mac OS X](https://instant-meshes.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/instant-meshes-macos.zip)<br/>
33> [Linux](https://instant-meshes.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/instant-meshes-linux.zip)
34
35Please also fetch the following dataset ZIP file and extract it so that the
36``datasets`` folder is in the same directory as ``Instant Meshes``, ``Instant Meshes.app``,
37or ``Instant Meshes.exe``.
38
39> [Datasets](https://instant-meshes.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/instant-meshes-datasets.zip)
40
41Note: On Linux, Instant Meshes relies on the program ``zenity``, which must be installed.
42
43## Compiling
44
45Compiling from scratch requires CMake and a recent version of XCode on Mac,
46Visual Studio 2015 on Windows, and GCC on Linux.
47
48On MacOS, compiling should be as simple as
49
50 git clone --recursive https://github.com/wjakob/instant-meshes
51 cd instant-meshes
52 cmake .
53 make -j 4
54
55To build on Linux, please install the prerequisites ``libxrandr-dev``,
56``libxinerama-dev``, ``libxcursor-dev``, and ``libxi-dev`` and then use the
57same sequence of commands shown above for MacOS.
58
59On Windows, open the generated file ``InstantMeshes.sln`` after step 3 and proceed building as usual from within Visual Studio.
60
61## Usage
62
63To get started, launch the binary and select a dataset using the "Open mesh" button on the top left (the application must be located in the same directory as the 'datasets' folder, otherwise the panel will be empty).
64
65The standard workflow is to solve for an orientation field (first blue button) and a position field (second blue button) in sequence, after which the 'Export mesh' button becomes active. Many user interface elements display a descriptive message when hovering the mouse cursor above for a second.
66
67A range of additional information about the input mesh, the computed fields,
68and the output mesh can be visualized using the check boxes accessible via the
69'Advanced' panel.
70
71Clicking the left mouse button and dragging rotates the object; right-dragging
72(or shift+left-dragging) translates, and the mouse wheel zooms. The fields can also be manipulated using brush tools that are accessible by clicking the first icon in each 'Tool' row.
73
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