Creating MEL Projects

Now you have the MEL library built, it's time to create your own project which uses it. Since you already have CMake installed, here's a typical C++ folder structure and CMakeLists.txt you can use as the basis for your own projects:

my_project            # top level of your project
├── bin               # conventionally where your compiled binaries (.exe) go
├── build             # conventionally where building occurs
├── include           # where your header files live
    ├── MyClass.hpp
    ├── ...
├── src               # where your source files live
    ├── MyClass.cpp
    ├── ...
    ├── main.cpp
├── CMakeLists.txt    # your top-level CMakeLists.txt

The CMakeLists.txt would then look like this:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.7)
# enable C++11
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 11)
# create project
project(MyProject)
# set binary output location (optional, but recommended)
set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/bin")
# include directories (your includes and MEL's)
include_directories("include" "/path/to/.../MEL/include")
# indicate where MEL.lib is
link_directories("/path/to/.../MEL/lib")
# create application
add_executable(MyApp include/MyClass.hpp src/MyClass.cpp src/main.cpp)
# link MEL
target_link_libraries(MyApp MEL)

You can save yourself some time by downloading the provided project template.

Note: If you built MEL statically, your project MUST define the preprocessor variable MEL_STATIC (e.g. by adding add_definitions(-DMEL_STATIC) to your own CMakeLists.txt). You will have to manually link your project against all of the external libraries MEL links against. To figure out which libraries are required, consult MEL's CMakeLists.txt.

Finally, to build your project open a command prompt at the top level of your project directory and run:

cd build                         # change directory to ./build
cmake ..   -G "GENERATOR STRING" # call cmake with same generator used for MEL

Note: If you are compiling for NI embedded systems (myRIO/cRIO), don't forget to set CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE when calling CMake on your project!

Now you can proceed to compile your project:

> cmake --build . --config Release

Remember, you should use the same compiler/generator that compiled MEL and MEL.dll or libMEL.so should be visible by your application if you built MEL as a dynamic library.

Next: Setting Up a VS Code IDE