SSTK: SmartScenes ToolKit

The (S)STK provides:

1. Web-based framework for viewing models and scenes.
2. Various web-based annotation interfaces for annotating models and scenes
3. Batch processing component for doing analysis on scenes and offscreen rendering (see ssc/README.md)
4. Server-side rendering

Getting Started

0. The SSTK can be used on Linux, MacOS and Windows systems.

   Prerequisites for Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install build-essential libxi-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libglew-dev libvips

   Prerequisites for MacOS: Please install Xcode

   For some older version of node (v10.x.x) and on some platforms, node-gyp may require python 2.7 so if you get an error with node-gyp, make sure the python in your path is python 2.7.

1. Install node.js v14.16.0. Using the Node Version Manager (nvm) is the easiest way to install node.js on most systems.

   curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.5/install.sh | bash
   source ~/.bashrc
   nvm install v14.16.0
   

   If you use zsh instead of bash, replace source ~/.bashrc with source ~/.zshrc. Confirm above works using node -v at the terminal.

2. Build the STK library. Enter the root directory of the repo (${STK})

   cd ${STK} 
   ./build.sh
   

   This will build the STK library that is needed by the server and command line scripts.

   Note 1: We are using an older version of node with pinned packages that may have vulnerabilities. So you may get a warning indicating that there are vulnerabilities.

   DO NOT run npm audit fix - that will upgrade some of the packages and cause the code to break.

   Note 2: if node-gyp gl build issue is encountered due to missing angle submodule, this is due to a bug (npm/cli#2774). To resolve this, downgrade to an older npm through npm install -g npm@'^6.4.11' prior to running build.

3. Running the server (see server/README.md for details

   cd server
   ./run.sh
   

   Visit http://localhost:8010 in your browser (Chrome is recommended)!

4. Running command line scripts

   See ssc/README.md.

Assets

To use the STK, you will need to get yourself some assets. There are several open-source datasets that you can use with the STK. Many of these datasets require agreeing to a license and terms of use,

1. 3D Models

• ShapeNet is a large dataset of 3D models.

2. Synthetic Scenes

• Stanford Scene Database consist of 150 synthetic scenes.
• SUNCG is a large indoor dataset with over 45K houses.

3. Reconstructions

• ScanNet
• Matterport3D
• SceneNN
• 2D-3D-S

The STK has been developed to be able to easily view and annotate 3D assets. Specifically, parts of ShapeNet, SUNCG, ScanNet, and Matterport3D were all developed using the STK.

Entry Points

• model-viewer : Model viewing interface
• model-categorizer.html : Model categorization interface
• scene-viewer.html : Scene Viewer

Development flow

If you are developing and changing the STK, the following will monitor changes to the client / server code.

1. In the /client folder, run this command:

NODE_ENV=dev npm run build

2. In the /server folder, run this command:

npm run watch

You can also specify the remote instance to use for various webservices (such as solr search) by specifying

STK_REMOTE_HOST=https://<remote-server-name>/scene-toolkit  npm run watch

Advanced Build Instructions

Different builds of client STK

To build different builds of the client STK library

• cd client
• Type npm install to install client dependencies
• Run npm run build to package the stk source files
  • Use NODE_ENV=dev npm run build to build source maps and have webpack watch for changes.
  • Use NODE_ENV=prod npm run build to optimize (including minify) the JS assets.

For convenience a build.sh script is provided that will run the two steps above. You will need to repeat the build step every time the client source files are changed or use NODE_ENV=dev npm run build to watch and rebuild as you develop!

Build the documentation

• cd client from the repository root
• run npm run jsdoc
• Open the generated jsdoc/index.html page with a browser

Running the server

Once you have built the client library, to start the server do the following from the root repository directory:

cd server
npm install                 
npm start          # or use "npm watch" to run the server using nodemon and automatically restart the server on changes

The server/run.sh script is provided that will run the above steps together.

See server/README.md for details, including how to deploy a new instance.

Development Workflow

For routine local development, here are the usual steps:

• Start webpack build process in watch mode by calling NODE_ENV=dev npm run build inside the client/ directory. If new dependencies have been introduced, you may get an unresolved module error and will need to run npm install first. With watch mode, you won't have to manually run npm run build when you change the client code (it will monitor changes in the client directory and rebuilt automatically).
• In a separate terminal, start the server process by calling npm run watch inside the server/ directory. Again, if new server code dependencies have been introduced, you may need an npm install call to resolve them first. Running the server in watch mode will monitor changes in the server directory and restart the server automatically.
• Go to a browser window and pull up localhost:8010/index.html or any other entry point (such as scene-viewer.html).
• If you just need a one-time build of the toolkit, copy out the client/build/STK.bundle.js (after npm run build) to the target directory.

Versioning conventions:

• The master branch contains latest mainstream (with potential bug fixes over latest release)
• The dev branch contains large (potentially breaking) changes
• The v0.5.x branch (and similar future versioned branches) contain the latest release of that form Versioning workflow: develop on master for small bug fixes or on dev for large changes. When ready to release branch, make sure to update appropriate v0.5.x or similar latest release branch, and also tag with exact version number (e.g., v0.5.3).

Annotation Assets and Database

The annotation tools use a MySQL database for storing annotations and an Apache solr index for indexing assets.

SQL DDL scripts for creating data tables are in scripts/db. See MySQL installation instructions for installing your own instance of MySQL and run the provided DDL scripts in scripts/db to create the annotation tables.

See wiki for how to prepare your assets for annotation. Once you have setup a MySQL server, you should edit config.annDb in server/config/index.js to point to your MySQL instance.

Access remote servers using reverse proxying and SSH tunneling

The server uses reverse proxying to access various other resources and web services. Edit server/app/routes/proxy-rules.js to add your own proxy rules for accessing your own resources.

If you run your own solr instance locally, you should set the environment variable USE_LOCAL=1. This can be done by manually or by copying the env.example.sh to env.sh and modifying it as necessary. It will be used in the provided build.sh and run.sh.

For storing annotations, you will need to setup your own MySQL server. Once you have setup a MySQL server, you should edit config.annDb in server/config/index.js to point to your MySQL instance.

If your MySQL server is limited to access by localhost only, you can use ssh tunneling to forward 3306 from a remote machine to localhost through SSH connection:

ssh -L 3306:localhost:3306 -L <host> -N

Building the documentation

• cd client from the repository root
• run npm run jsdoc
• Open the generated jsdoc/index.html page with a browser

Changelog

Refer to CHANGELOG.md for a record of notable changes.