The Complete COLMAP/GLOMAP Installation Guide for Mac #62

Hello, it took me hours of troubleshooting to successfully build COLMAP and GLOMAP on my Mac. To save others from the same hassle, I've compiled this comprehensive installation guide. I hope this guide helps you get up and running smoothly, so you can focus on using these powerful tools without the headaches I encountered.

Installing the COLMAP:


1. Open the Terminal and install the brew dependancies:
brew install
cmake
ninja
boost
eigen
flann
libomp \ #(Install Libomp as well)
freeimage
metis
glog
googletest
ceres-solver
qt@5
glew
cgal
sqlite3

2. Clone the COLMAP repository:
git clone https://github.com/colmap/colmap.git
cd colmap

3. Ensure Qt5 is in your PATH:
export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/qt@5/bin:$PATH"

4. Create a build directory:
mkdir build
cd build

5. After installing, link Qt5 to make sure it’s accessible:
brew link qt@5 --force

6. Run CMake with the specific paths for ARM Mac(M1 and above):
cmake .. -GNinja -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/flann;/opt/homebrew/opt/metis;/opt/homebrew/opt/suite-sparse;/opt/homebrew/opt/qt@5;/opt/homebrew/opt/freeimage"

7. Build and install COLMAP:
ninja
sudo ninja install

8. Confirm COLMAP installation by running:
colmap -h
colmap gui


This is the first part and will install Colmap on your device.






Installing the GLOMAP:

1. Clone the GitHub repository:
git clone https://github.com/colmap/glomap
cd glomap

2. Create a build directory:
mkdir build
cd build

3. Export Environment Variables Again:
export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/qt@5/bin:$PATH"
export LDFLAGS="-L/opt/homebrew/opt/libomp/lib"
export CPPFLAGS="-I/opt/homebrew/opt/libomp/include"
export CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/qt@5;/opt/homebrew/opt/libomp"
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/qt@5/lib/pkgconfig"

4. Run the CMake Command:
cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="/opt/homebrew/Cellar/qt@5/5.15.13_1;/opt/homebrew/opt/libomp"
-DOpenMP_C_FLAGS="-Xclang -fopenmp"
-DOpenMP_C_LIB_NAMES="libomp"
-DOpenMP_CXX_FLAGS="-Xclang -fopenmp"
-DOpenMP_CXX_LIB_NAMES="libomp"
-DOpenMP_C_INCLUDE_DIRS="/opt/homebrew/opt/libomp/include"
-DOpenMP_CXX_INCLUDE_DIRS="/opt/homebrew/opt/libomp/include"
-DOpenMP_libomp_LIBRARY=/opt/homebrew/opt/libomp/lib/libomp.dylib
-DOpenMP_INCLUDE_DIR=/opt/homebrew/opt/libomp/include
.. -GNinja

5. Build the Project:
ninja



NOTE: If at this point, there are build errors related to ‘cholmod.h’ or ‘omp.h’, clean the build and then re-run the make with the following commands:

cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="/opt/homebrew/Cellar/qt@5/5.15.13_1;/opt/homebrew/opt/libomp"
-DOpenMP_C_FLAGS="-Xclang -fopenmp -I/opt/homebrew/opt/libomp/include"
-DOpenMP_C_LIB_NAMES="libomp"
-DOpenMP_CXX_FLAGS="-Xclang -fopenmp -I/opt/homebrew/opt/libomp/include"
-DOpenMP_CXX_LIB_NAMES="libomp"
-DOpenMP_libomp_LIBRARY=/opt/homebrew/opt/libomp/lib/libomp.dylib
.. -GNinja

After the build is successful:

*6. Install the Built Project:*

sudo ninja install

7. Test the Installation:
glomap -h

It should display something like:
GLOMAP -- Global Structure-from-Motion
Usage:
glomap mapper --database_path DATABASE --output_path
MODEL
glomap mapper_resume --input_path MODEL_INPUT --output_path MODEL_OUTPUT
Available commands:
help
mapper
mapper_resume



Testing with the end-to-end examples provided:


1. Open the end-to-end example database link provided:
https://lpanaf.github.io/eccv24_glomap/


2. Download one of the datasets provided and extract the zip file.
*3. Create a new directory named ‘data’ in the root directory ‘glomap’.*


*4. Place the extracted dataset in the directory ‘data’.*


5. Now navigate back to the project directory ‘glomap’.

NOTE: Following commands are assuming the dataset to be south-building:

6. Extract Features with COLMAP:
colmap feature_extractor
--image_path ./data/south-building/images
--database_path ./data/south-building/database.db



7. Match Features with COLMAP:
colmap exhaustive_matcher
--database_path ./data/south-building/database.db

8. Run GLOMAP Mapper:
glomap mapper
--database_path ./data/south-building/database.db
--image_path ./data/south-building/images
--output_path ./output/south-building/sparse

This should generate a new directory named ‘output’ in the project directory.

9. Visualize the Results:
colmap gui
--database_path ./data/south-building/database.db
--image_path ./data/south-building/images
--import_path ./output/south-building/sparse/0