Installation of VTK library with Visual Studio Community 2022 on Windows 10

Question

I amusing Visual Studio Community 2022 for C++ to install the Visualization Tool Kit (VTK) on a Windows 10 PC.

I literally followed the procedure on the following website Building VTK using Visual Studio on Windows

I downloaded the VTK source code into the "src" folder. I used CMake and Visual Studio. After the building phase the "bin" folder was populated with the VTK library (.dll).

I tested the VTK library installation using the example suggested in the procedure https://kitware.github.io/vtk-examples/site/Cxx/Picking/HighlightPickedActor/

Unluckily, when I run the example with Visual Studio I get the following error message "The code execution cannot proceed because vtkRenderingOpenGL2-9.2.dll was not found. Reinstalling the program may fix this problem" I am not clear about which program should be reinstalled. Is it Visual Studio, or VTK, or the example test?

I tried adding the path of the VTK library (.dll) to my username environment variable PATH. It did not solve the problem.

I tried to install the VTK library (.dll) as a subfolder of Program Files. It did not solve the problem.

I am at my wits' end

Should I try to add the VTK library as part of the References or External Dependencies in Visual Studio?

If the answer is "yes" then how can I do that?

I have some limited experience of Visual Studio with C# for which I had followed some examples showing how to add NuGet packages and dependencies. I have no such experience with C++.

I would appreciate some help at implementing C++ codes that successfully call the VTK library (.dll) for image rendering

Thank you in advance

Maura E. M.

Answer 1

Hi, @mauede

Since the exe has been built, the DLL exists. You just haven't added the correct path.

From the SO thread you post:

\vtk\build\bin is added to environment variable PATH.

vtkRenderingOpenGL2-9.2.dll is release version. The Release folder needs to be added to PATH.
XXX\XXX\vtk\build\bin\Release

Best regards,

Minxin Yu

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