How To Integrate Plugin Code

Copyright 2021 Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

If you want to build and possibly edit one of the plugins from the Pointwise repository, you must first integrate the source code from this repository into your local PluginSDK installation.

These instructions assume you have already downloaded, installed, and verified your Pointwise Plugin SDK installation. Be sure the SDK version you are using is compatible with the version of Pointwise which you are targeting.

If you plan on building the plugin for multiple platforms, I suggest that you place the SDK on a network drive. That way you can build plugins using the same SDK installation. You only need to create the plugin project one time. Once a plugin project is created, it can be accessed and built on all platforms supported by Pointwise.

In the sections below, the PluginSDK directory is shorthand for the full path to the PluginSDK directory of your SDK installation. That is, PluginSDK is shorthand for \some\long\path\to\your\install\of\PluginSDK.

The integration process, detailed below, is simple:

1. Create a new, boiler-plate plugin project in your SDK installation
2. Compile the newly created, SDK plugin project
3. Copy the files from the appropriate github plugin repository into the SDK plugin project and recompile

Create a New Plugin Project

You must first create a plugin project using the mkplugin SDK script. This script is run from your machine's command shell and requires 2 options. Consult the plugin repository page to determine the appropriate options. You can run mkplugin with the -h option to see the full script usage. mkplugin is a Tcl script. You must have tclsh to run it. See the tclsh Information section for more details.

In the following examples, Name is a place-holder for the actual plugin project name.

Example: C-language, unstructured CAE exporter plugin project

The following example creates a plugin project named CaeUnsName.

• On mac/unix: ./mkplugin -c -caeu Name
• On windows: mkplugin -c -caeu Name

Example: C++-language, structured CAE exporter plugin project

The following example creates a plugin project named CaeStrName.

• On mac/unix: ./mkplugin -cpp -caes Name
• On windows: mkplugin -cpp -caes Name

Example: C-language, grid importer plugin project

The following example creates a plugin project named GrdpName.

• On mac/unix: ./mkplugin -c -grdp Name
• On windows: mkplugin -c -grdp Name

Compile the New Plugin Project

To make sure there were no problems creating the plugin project, it should be compiled before making any changes to it. Other than possibly being displayed in the Pointwsie UI (and available via Glyph), the new plugin won't do anything useful. As long as it builds correctly here, we are ready for the next step.

In the next sections, XxxxName refers to the plugin project's full, decorated name (i.e. CaeUnsName).

Compiling on Unix and MacOSX

The make utility is used to compile the plugin project on linux and MacOSX platforms. For details, click on the 4. Build the CAE plugin link in the How to Create a CAE Plugin section.

To compile for both debug and relase on macOSX:

• make machine=macosx XxxxName-dr

To compile for both debug and relase on linux:

• make machine=linux_x86_64 XxxxName-dr

Compiling on Windows

Microsoft Visual Studio (VS) is used to compile the plugin project on the Windows platform. Before a project can be built for the first time, it must be added to the plugin SDK's VS solution:

• Choose the File > Open > Project/Solution... menu
• Select the appropriate .sln solution file in the PluginSDK directory
• In the Solution Explorer tab
  • Right-click on the Plugins item
  • Choose Add > Existing Project... in the popup menu
  • Select PluginSDK\src\plugins\XxxxName\XxxxName.vcxproj
  • A XxxxName project should now be listed under the Plugins item along with the other SDK example plugins

Now that the plugin project is part of the solution, it can be compiled:

• Right-click on the XxxxName project
• Choose Build in the popup menu

Integrate the github Plugin Source Files into the Plugin Project

Once the XxxxName project is created and builds correctly as explained above, you can integrate the source code from this repository into your project by copying the repository files into the PluginSDK\src\plugins\XxxxName directory. This will overwrite the boilerplate files generated by mkplugin. You can now rebuild the plugin project as outlined above.

If this repo contains a custom modulelocal.mk file, the project is using custom .cxx and .h files (files not generated by mkplugin) or links to third-party libraries. In this case, the plugin's github page should include a README.md section listing the custom files and libraries.

For MacOSX and linux builds, nothing more needs to be done. The modulelocal.mk file already hooks these custom files into make.

However, for Windows builds using Visual Studio, these files and libraries must be added to the XxxxName project.

To add the custom .h and .cxx files, goto the Solution Explorer tab and:

• Right-click on the XxxxName project item (added above)
• Choose Add > Existing Item... in the popup menu (which displays a file chooser dialog box)
• Browse to the PluginSDK\src\plugins\XxxxName directory and select the custom .h and .cxx files listed in the plugin's github repo (not the libs)

To add the custom link libraries, goto the Solution Explorer tab and:

• Right-click on the XxxxName project item (added above)
• Choose Properties (which displays a dialog box)
  • Select the x64 Platform (Pointwise only supports 64-bit plugins)
  • Select the appropriate Configuration
  • Navigate to Linker > General and add library directories to Additional Libaray Directories as needed.
  • Navigate to Linker > Input and add Additional Dependencies library file names (without path) as needed.
  • Repeat as needed for each Configuration

If the project builds correctly after copying the files, you now have a plugin that is functionally equivalent to the plugin distributed with Pointwise. The XxxxName plugin project is now ready for you to make your desired code changes.

Closing Thoughts

Even though this new plugin is functionally equivalent, its group and user ids are different. Because of this, Pointwise considers the XxxxName plugin created by the SDK as a different CAE solver.

There are several ways to make the plugins built by the SDK "visible" to Pointwise at runtime. In the How to Create a CAE Plugin section, click on the 4. Build the CAE plugin link for information on configuring your SDK build environment.

If you plan on publicly releasing source or binary builds of your version of the XxxxName plugin, you need to be careful about your choice of site id, site group name, plugin id, and plugin name. See documentation for site.h for details. Pointwise may not properly load your plugin if the values you choose conflict with other CAE plugins.

Being open source, we would like to incorporate any enhancements or bug fixes you make back into the main Pointwise build. Please do not hesitate to send us git pull requests for your changes. We will evaluate your changes and integrate them as appropriate.

Disclaimer

This file is licensed under the Cadence Public License Version 1.0 (the "License"), a copy of which is found in the LICENSE file, and is distributed "AS IS." TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, CADENCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES AND IN NO EVENT SHALL BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR ANY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO USE OF THIS FILE. Please see the License for the full text of applicable terms.