Comparing Geomview with Modern 3D Visualization Tools

How to install and use Geomview on Linux and macOS

Prerequisites

• X11 (XQuartz on macOS) and OpenGL (or Mesa).
• Motif/OpenMotif or OpenMotif-compatible library (LessTif may work).
• Build tools: gcc/clang, make, autoconf, pkg-config (if building from source).

Installation — macOS

1. Install XQuartz (https://www.xquartz.org/) and a package manager (Homebrew or MacPorts).
2. Preferred quick install:
   • Homebrew: brew install geomview (formula may be deprecated on some macOS versions; try MacPorts if unavailable).
   • MacPorts: sudo port install geomview
3. If building from source:
   • Download source from https://www.geomview.org or the GitHub repo.
   • Ensure OpenMotif and X11 dev headers are installed (via Homebrew/MacPorts).
   • From source directory:

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     ./configure –prefix=/usr/local make sudo make install 

   • On some macOS versions you may need special LDFLAGS to avoid OpenGL linking errors (see Geomview site notes).

Installation — Linux (Debian/Ubuntu example)

1. Install X11/OpenGL and Motif libraries:

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   sudo apt update sudo apt install build-essential libx11-dev libxext-dev libxmu-dev libxaw7-dev libxt-dev libsm-dev libice-dev libmotif-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-dev 

   (Package names vary by distro; on Debian/Ubuntu look for openmotif or lesstif packages.)

2. Install from package if available: