SOFA-NG transition

Project timeline

Project is now over and all changes are integrated within SOFA.

A dedicated Github project was created for SOFA NG
A GitHub issue was referencing all different PRs, the description of the task and the drafts for SOFA-NG

Components

SOFA-NG introduced new libraries, or more exactly replaces the previous "modules" (e.g. SofaBaseTopology, etc.), as it was deemed difficult for the new users to find a specific component in the code. Moreover, the dependencies between the module were difficult to manage and the sorting was seemingly weird because of unholy hard-dependency in the code.

Since v22.06, a new architecture has been proposed and the SOFA team worked on a compatibility layer aiming at making the transition as smooth as possible for the community. Nevertheless, the compatibility layer might not cover some specifal cases. Do not hesitate to report your technical issues.

We need to handle either the developers of new plugins designing components and simulations; and the "normal" users which only executes simulations. There are 3 layers to manage the compatibility: CMake configure process, at compile-time and at run-time:

at run-time, highlighting that a component should be loaded from the new library and not the deprecated one (user and dev)
in the CMake process, informing that the deprecated package should be replaced by which new library (dev only)
at the compilation time, to warn the user that the path for a chosen header changed in the new architecture (dev only)

CMake

CMake packages for the deprecated modules throw warnings message at the configuration time and redirect to the new ones. Effectively, it does :

find_package(new_package1)
find_package(new_package2)
...
target_link_library(oldmodule new_package1 new_package2)

and it creates an empty shell of a project, dedicated to route the new includes and the new library (.lib, .so) to the new packages.

Compilation

One big package called Sofa.Component.Compat contains all the previous headers (with the previous paths), which merely redirects to the new paths and, if the case occurs, creates an alias of the component into the previous namespace.

This is the most problematic case and where the compatibility is most likely to fail:

C++ does not allow specialization of templated classes with aliases
forward declaration in dev files will fail as well, as it is not possible to declare twice a class (first created by the alias and then by the forward declaration, or vice-versa)
if one did not use explicitly the include of a header but was relying on the other file (e.g using PointSetTopologyContainer but was including TriangleSetTopologyContainer, which is using PointSetTopologyContainer), the compilation will fail.

Obviously, if the move did not imply a change of namespace, the transition is much smoother (for example, with Controller from Sofa.Component.Controller)

Run-time

When a user loads a deprecated module in its scene (either by using RequiredPlugin or by manually loading it), the loading process will display a warning, advising to load the new modules, and then will load automatically the new one. This will allow the scene to still load, even if only the deprecated module was set.

Mapping deprecated modules ↔ new libraries

SofaBase

SofaBaseTopology	Sofa.Component.Topology
SofaBaseLinearSolver	Sofa.Component.LinearSolver.Iterative
SofaBaseUtils	Sofa.Component.SceneUtility
SofaBaseCollision	Sofa.Component.Collision.Model
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Detection.Algorithm
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Detection.Intersection
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Response.Mapper
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Response.Contact
SofaBaseMechanics	Sofa.Component.Mass
	Sofa.Component.Mapping.Linear
	Sofa.Component.StateContainer
SofaBaseTopology	Sofa.Component.Topology.Container.Grid
	Sofa.Component.Topology.Container.Constant
	Sofa.Component.Topology.Container.Dynamic
SofaBaseVisual	Sofa.Component.Visual
SofaBaseVisual	Sofa.Component.Setting

SofaCommon

SofaDeformable	Sofa.Component.SolidMechanics.Spring
SofaEngine	Sofa.Component.Engine.Select
SofaExplicitOdeSolver	Sofa.Component.ODESolver.Forward
SofaImplicitOdeSolver	Sofa.Component.ODESolver.Backward
SofaLoader	Sofa.Component.IO.Mesh
SofaObjectInteraction	Sofa.Component.Collision.Response.Contact
SofaMeshCollision	Sofa.Component.Collision.Geometry
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Detection.Intersection
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Response.Mapper
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Response.Contact
SofaRigid	Sofa.Component.Mapping
SofaRigid	Sofa.Component.SolidMechanics.Spring
SofaSimpleFem	Sofa.Component.Diffusion
SofaSimpleFem	Sofa.Component.SolidMechanics.FEM.Elastic

SofaGeneral

SofaGeneralExplicitOdeSolver	Sofa.Component.ODESolver.Forward
SofaGeneralImplicitOdeSolver	Sofa.Component.ODESolver.Backward
SofaGeneralRigid	Sofa.Component.Mapping
SofaGeneralSimpleFem	Sofa.Component.SolidMechanics.FEM.Elastic
SofaGeneralVisual	Sofa.Component.Visual
SofaBoundaryCondition	Sofa.Component.Constraint.Projective
SofaBoundaryCondition	Sofa.Component.MechanicalLoad
SofaConstraint	Sofa.Component.Mapping.MappedMatrix
	Sofa.Component.Constraint.Lagrangian.Model
	Sofa.Component.Constraint.Lagrangian.Correction
	Sofa.Component.Constraint.Lagrangian.Solver
	Sofa.Component.AnimationLoop
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Detection.Intersection
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Response.Contact
	Sofa.GUI.Component
SofaGeneralAnimationLoop	Sofa.Component.Mapping.MappedMatrix
SofaGeneralAnimationLoop	Sofa.Component.AnimationLoop
SofaGeneralDeformable	Sofa.Component.SolidMechanics.Spring
SofaGeneralDeformable	Sofa.Component.SolidMechanics.TensorMass
SofaGeneralEngine	Sofa.Component.Engine.Analyze
	Sofa.Component.Engine.Generate
	Sofa.Component.Engine.Select
	Sofa.Component.Engine.Transform
SofaGeneralLinearSolver	Sofa.Component.LinearSolver.Iterative
SofaGeneralLinearSolver	Sofa.Component.LinearSolver.Direct
SofaGeneralLoader	Sofa.Component.IO.Mesh
SofaGeneralLoader	Sofa.Component.Playback
SofaGeneralMeshCollision	Sofa.Component.Collision.Geometry
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Detection.Algorithm
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Detection.Intersection
SofaGeneralObjectInteraction	Sofa.Component.SolidMechanics.Spring
	Sofa.Component.Constraint.Projective
	Sofa.Component.MechanicalLoad
SofaGeneralTopology	Sofa.Component.Topology.Container.Grid
SofaGeneralTopology	Sofa.Component.Topology.Container.Constant
SofaGraphComponent	Sofa.Component.SceneUtility
	Sofa.Component.Setting
	Sofa.GUI.Component
	the plugin SceneChecking
SofaUserInteraction	Sofa.Component.Collision.Geometry
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Detection.Algorithm
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Detection.Intersection
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Response.Contact
	Sofa.Component.Controller
	Sofa.GUI.Component (from Sofa.GUI)
SofaTopologyMapping	Sofa.Component.Topology.Mapping
SofaTopologyMapping	Sofa.Component.Mapping

SofaMisc

SofaMiscExtra	Sofa.Component.Engine.Generate
SofaMiscTopology	Sofa.Component.Topology.Utility
SofaMiscCollision	Sofa.Component.Collision.Geometry
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Detection.Intersection
	Sofa.Component.Collision.Response.Contact
	the plugin CollisionOBBCapsule
SofaMiscEngine	Sofa.Component.Engine.Analyze
SofaMiscEngine	Sofa.Component.Engine.Transform
SofaMiscFem	Sofa.Component.SolidMechanics.FEM.Elastic
	Sofa.Component.SolidMechanics.FEM.HyperElastic
	Sofa.Component.SolidMechanics.TensorMass
SofaMiscForceField	Sofa.Component.Mass
SofaMiscForceField	Sofa.Component.SolidMechanics.Spring
SofaMiscSolver	Sofa.Component.ODESolver.Backward
SofaMiscSolver	Sofa.Component.ODESolver.Forward

Plugins

SofaDenseSolver	Sofa.Component.LinearSolver.Direct
SofaExporter	Sofa.Component.IO.Mesh and Sofa.Component.Playback
SofaHaptics	Sofa.Component.Haptics
SofaValidation	Sofa.Component.Playback
SofaNonUniformFem	Sofa.Component.Topology.Container.Grid
	Sofa.Component.Topology.Container.Dynamic
	Sofa.Component.SolidMechanics.FEM.NonUniform
SofaOpenglVisual	Sofa.GL.Component.Rendering2D
	Sofa.GL.Component.Rendering3D
	Sofa.GL.Component.Shader (from Sofa.GL)
SofaPreconditioner	Sofa.Component.LinearSolver.Iterative
SofaPreconditioner	Sofa.Component.LinearSolver.Preconditioner
SofaSparseSolver	Sofa.Component.LinearSolver.Iterative
SofaSparseSolver	Sofa.Component.LinearSolver.Direct

Collection

SofaComponentAll

Sofa.Component

Framework

SOFA-NG induced also a cleaning in the framework of SOFA. All parts of the framework have been renamed to reflect the same pattern started with Sofa.Component. For example, SofaSimulationGraph becomes Sofa.Simulation.Graph.

The list of the differents packages which are considered as part of the framework is:

SofaHelper	Sofa.Helper
SofaDefaulttype	Sofa.Defaulttype
SofaCore	Sofa.Core
SofaSimulationCore	Sofa.Simulation.Core
SofaSimulationCommon	Sofa.Simulation.Common
SofaSimulationGraph	Sofa.Simulation.Graph
	Sofa.Config (new), which gathers all CMake files used in SOFA projects (macros, config, flags, etc)
	Sofa.Type (new)
	Sofa.LinearAlgebra (new)
	Sofa.Geometry (new)
	Sofa.Topology (new)

Report technical issues

In case you face any technical difficulty in the transition, please report it using our GitHub Discussion forum.