Compilation steps

Linux 64 bits

OSX

Install tcl

If you plan to use the default tcl version considered by VMD, then you need to download tcl 8.5.

Download & install http://www.tcl.tk/software/tcltk/downloadnow85.html Unzip the archive

cd tcl8.5.19/macosx
CC=clang ./configure
make -f Makefile
sudo make install -f Makefile

Then you can define these as environment variables

export TCLINC=/usr/local/include
export TCLLIB=/usr/local/lib

Install netcdf

If you want to compile the netcdf plugin & have netcdf support you also need this library:

sudo port install netcdf
export NETCDFINC=-I/opt/local/include
export NETCDFLIB=/opt/local/lib/libnetcdf.dylib
export NETCDFLDFLAGS=-Lnetcdf

Compile the molfile plugin (for X86_64 Intel chipset)

adapt the TCLLIB variable to the tcl version you have installed

In this repo:

cd plugins 
make MACOSXX86_64 TCLINC=$TCLINC TCLLIB=$TCLLIB/libtcl8.5.dylib
export PLUGINDIR=$PWD/compiled
make distrib

Original Documentation

VMD Plugin README

This directory is the root of the plugin directory for VMD.
VMD plugins are designed to add new functionality and support for new types of files or external programs without compiling that functionality into the main body of VMD's code. Most plugins take the form of a shared library (files named xxx.so or xxx.dll) which can be detected by VMD and loaded at run time. The plugin and the application communicate through a well-defined API, which makes the plugin more reusable by avoiding direct coupling to VMD's internal data structures. Similarly, plugins can be upgraded at any time, independent of VMD itself.

For additional information on compiling the plugins and building VMD, please read the web-based plugin documentation here: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/plugins/doxygen/

Plugin directory structure

/_plugin: Directories that end in _plugin are plugin source repositories. All plugins of a given type (i.e., which use the same API) should be placed in the corresponding directory. Each plugin directory contains the following subdirectories:

• src: source code for all plugins of that type;
• msvc: Microsoft Visual Studio project files for each plugin;
• doc: documentation for each plugin. The plugin directory also contains a Makefile for compiling all the plugins. The Makefile currently is for a gcc target only.

/compile: Contains compiled binary plugins, both static and dynamic, as well as related header files, etc.

/include: This directory contains the VMD plugin API header files, including vmdplugin.h (the base-level plugin header) as well as headers for other plugin types. Alternatively, these files may be linked from the VMD source tree.

/msvc: Contains a Microsoft Visual Studio workspace file for compiling all the plugins for the Win32 platform.