ITK 1.0 Release: Welcome!¶

This is the third public release of ITK (Release-1-0). The ITK developer community appreciates any feedback that you may have regarding this software. Join the ITK user mailing list (instructions later) and post your feedback there. Warning: since the software is young, and this is an early release, the API to the software will likely change in the future.

Here are suggested steps for the ITK beginner. Please refer to http://www.itk.org for more information. Another document, found in Insight/Documentation/InsightStart.pdf is highly recommended.

  1. Get the software. We strongly suggest that you obtain the pre-packaged source code distributions (binaries/executables are not yet available).

    http://www.itk.org/HTML/Download.php

    You may also obtain CVS access. (This requires the CVS executable and access to ITK’s source code through your repository.) To check out the ITK version 1,0 release, use the following procedure:

    cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@www.itk.org:/cvsroot/Insight login (respond with password “insight”) cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@www.itk.org:/cvsroot/Insight co
    -r Release-1-0 Insight

    The current development version of ITK is available using the following process. Please realize that the development version is inherently less stable than official releases. If you access the development version, you will want to monitor code quality at the ITK Dashboard http://public.kitware.com/dashboard.php?name=itk.

    cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@www.itk.org:/cvsroot/Insight login (respond with password “insight”) cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@www.itk.org:/cvsroot/Insight co Insight

  2. The software is compiled using CMake http://www.cmake.org. CMake generates Makefiles on Unix platforms, and Windows workspaces (or appropriate) build files according to your compiler, operating system, and other system variables.

    If at all possible, obtain the pre-compiled CMake binaries. Binaries for Windows and various Unix flavors are available from http://www.cmake.org/CMake/HTML/Download.html. On Windows, run the CMSetup.exe to install CMake. On Unix, uncompress and untar the package and place the executable in a location in your path.

    On Windows, run CMake by clicking on CMakeSetup.exe. You have to point CMake to the source directory (e.g., Insight), a build directory (where the binaries and object files go), and choose the compiler. The GUI allows you to choose build options and configure the build. Rerun CMake (by selecting “Configure”) until all “red” entries disappear. Then select “Ok”. This will produce a compiler workspace in the directory that you selected.

    On Unix, run “ccmake”. This simple, curses-based GUI to CMake allows you to configure the build process. First create a build directory in which to generate object code and executables. Cd into this directory and specify your C and C++ compilers with the environment variables

     setenv CC your-c-compiler
 setenv CXX your-c++-compiler

    Next invoke “ccmake ../Insight” assuming that your build directory is a sibling directory to Insight/. While running ccmake, changes are made using the arrow keys to move over an option, and the “Enter” key to edit it. Type “C” to configure the build. As long as “*” appear next to any entries, keep running CMake until none exist. Then type “G” to generate makefiles and exit. Then run “make” in the build directory.

    If you have difficulty with CMake, please refer to http://www.cmake.org for additional instructions. It is possible to obtain CVS access and compile CMake if absolutely necessary.

  3. Join the mailing list. Go to http://www.itk.org/mailman/listinfo/insight-users and follow the instructions there. You may choose to receive a digest version of the mail to minimize traffic.

  4. Learn the system. Start by looking at the examples in http://www.itk.org/HTML/Examples.htm. The source code is found in the Insight/Examples source code directory. (To build the examples, make sure the CMake flag “BUILD_EXAMPLES” is on.) You may also wish to peruse the many tests found in Insight/Testing/Code.

ITK resources are available at the following locations.