BRL-CAD on Windows README
=========================

Compilation of BRL-CAD under Windows is performed in one of three
ways.  The first and usually most readily attainable build process is
to install BRL-CAD under the Mingw or Cygwin compatibility
environments where the build steps are the same as on the other
platforms (documented in the INSTALL file).

The second approach is to compile using MSVC 6 using the build files
in the misc/win32-msvc directory.  This approach, however, will ONLY
currently build all of the libraries and is intended for 3rd party
applications that link against BRL-CAD as a geometry engine or
ray-trace library.  This approach also requires separate installation
of Tcl using, for example, the ActiveTcl distribution.

The third approach is to compile using MSVC 7 using the build files in
the misc/win32-msvc7 directory.  This approach will compile the vast
majority of the package and is the approach utilized when making a
binary release of BRL-CAD for Windows.  This will compile 'mged',
'rt', some of the converters, a few of the other geometry analysis
tools, and more.  In all, it compiles about a third of the utilities
and all of the libraries.

The Windows build of MGED does not currently have a functioning
display manager so raytracing directly into the Graphics Window is not
possible.  To raytrace, users should either render directly to a
window by utilizing the 'rt' command, or by launching a framebuffer
server via 'fbserv' on the command-line.  The framebuffer can be "set
default" by adding a -F# (e.g. -F0) to the "Other Options" field of
the "Advanced Settings..." panel of the Raytrace Control Panel,
selected via File->Raytrace.

openNURBS and Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0: If you get a compile bug error
c2676 binary != not defined for stuct _GUID, then you are not using
the November 2001 Platform SDK or the platform SDK is not first in
your includes list. The last SDK that will work with VC 6.0 is the
February 2003 Edition, you can download it from
http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/psdk-full.htm.

Special thanks to Jonathan Bonomo for the new Windows installer that
uses the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (i.e. NSIS) that will
replace the former InstallShield installer for BRL-CAD for Windows.
The NSIS scripts files are in misc/nsis/.
