[DOC] Revision of Build Instructions

[ghost]

(draft, please do not edit for now)

Prerequisites

• Node 8: Use Node.js version 8 (10 generates lots of warnings, and 12+ fails due to node-gyp). Recommend using the Node version manager.
  • nvm-windows to download Node and change versions.
• Python 2.7 (Python 3 does not work). Recommend using Python version manager pyenv-win to download and change versions. Make sure to close all command shells (including VSCode) after doing this, to get the latest environment variables. Check with python --version.
  • NOTE: If you are running Windows 10 1905 or newer, you might need to disable the built-in Python launcher via
    • Start > "Manage App Execution Aliases" and turning off the "App Installer" aliases for Python"
• Visual Studio 2019 with Desktop Development wit C++ extensions - node-gyp (the Node to C++ binding environment) requires it.
  • See this page for a simple to install package that may work
  • manually Install VS2019 with C++ extensions, if the above does not work

# if your VCINSTALLDIR points to VS2022, clear it
set VCINSTALLDIR=

Building

git clone --recurse-submodules --remote-submodules https://github.com/cmidgley/Deepnest
cd Deepnest
npm config set msvs_version 2019
npm install
npm run w:build
npm run w:start

Rebuild

• If you change the electron-related files (web files, javascript), a build with
  • npm run w:build is all that is needed.
• If you change the the Minkowski files (the .cc or .h files), where the NFP (Non-Fit Polygon) logic and background threading is handled, you must rebuild using node-gyp to recompile the files using:
  • npm run w:fullbuild

Running

Unless you want to create a distribution build (a separate set of
executable files that can be run without dependency on the build environment), you can run Deepnest with:

• npm run w:start

Clean builds

Two clean options:

• For regular clean of build artifacts, use npm run w:clean and then npm run w:build.
• To remove everything, including node_modules use npm run w:fullclean, then build again.

Create a distribution build

To build a distribution set of files, run:

• npm run w:dist

The resulting files will be located in .\deepnest-win32-x64. All files need to be distributed,
meaning a ZIP file or writing a simple installer would be needed to avoid handling a larger number
of files.

Browser dev tools

If the environment variable "deepnest_debug" has a value of "1", Deepnest will open the browser
dev tools (debugger/inspector).