fmi-bd2cmake

CMakeLists.txt generator that reads buildDescription.xml in FMI source code and generates build files for CMake.

Installation

Install from PyPI (when published):

pip install fmi-bd2cmake

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/jgillis/fmi-bd2cmake.git
cd fmi-bd2cmake
pip install -e .

Usage

Navigate to your FMU directory structure and run:

# Basic usage (looks for sources/buildDescription.xml in current directory)
fmi-bd2cmake

# Specify custom input/output paths
fmi-bd2cmake --input path/to/buildDescription.xml --output MyProject.txt

# Get help
fmi-bd2cmake --help

Expected Directory Structure

The tool expects an FMU source directory structure like:

your_fmu_directory/
├── sources/
│   ├── buildDescription.xml
│   ├── model.c
│   └── utils.c
└── CMakeLists.txt (generated)

After running fmi-bd2cmake, you can build with:

cmake -B build -DFMI_HEADERS_DIR=/path/to/fmi/headers .
cmake --build build
cmake --install build

This will create a shared library in binaries/{arch}/ directory as per FMI convention.

buildDescription.xml Format

The tool supports FMI 2.0 buildDescription.xml format with the following elements:

<fmiBuildDescription fmiVersion="2.0">
  <BuildConfiguration description="Build config" modelIdentifier="my_model">
    <SourceFileSet language="C99">
      <SourceFile name="model.c"/>
      <SourceFile name="utils.c"/>
      <IncludeDirectory name="../include"/>
      <PreprocessorDefinition name="DEBUG"/>
      <PreprocessorDefinition name="VERSION" value="1.0"/>
    </SourceFileSet>
    <IncludeDirectory name="../../common"/>
    <Library name="m"/>
    <PreprocessorDefinition name="PLATFORM_LINUX"/>
  </BuildConfiguration>
</fmiBuildDescription>

Features

• Standard library only: No external dependencies beyond Python standard library
• Cross-platform: Automatically detects target architecture (x86_64-linux, x86_64-windows, etc.)
• Full FMI support: Handles source files, include directories, preprocessor definitions, and libraries
• FMI headers support: Optional specification of external FMI header directory (typically containing fmi2Functions.h)
• Multiple source file sets: Supports different language/compiler settings per source set
• CMake best practices: Generates modern CMake with proper target properties
• Error handling: Clear error messages for missing files or invalid XML

FMI Headers Configuration

FMI header files (such as fmi2Functions.h) are typically not included in the FMU source distribution. The generated CMakeLists.txt automatically attempts to locate these headers and provides several ways to specify their location:

CMake Variable

cmake -DFMI_HEADERS_DIR=/path/to/fmi/headers .

Environment Variable

export FMI_HEADERS_DIR=/path/to/fmi/headers
cmake .

Automatic Discovery

The generated CMakeLists.txt will automatically search for FMI headers in common locations:

• /usr/include/fmi2 (Ubuntu/Debian libfmi-dev package)
• /usr/local/include/fmi2 (custom installation)
• /opt/local/include/fmi2 (MacPorts)
• ../fmi-headers (relative to project)
• fmi-headers (in project directory)

The CMake variable takes precedence over the environment variable, which takes precedence over automatic discovery.

Examples

See the test_example/ and test_advanced/ directories for working examples.