A premake5 script for building assimp

assimp.lua

-- How to use:
-- 0. Get assimp from https://github.com/assimp/assimp
-- 1. Place this file next to the cloned assimp repository like this:
--
--       assimp.lua
--       assimp/
--
-- 2. Set up configuration headers
--
--     2.1 Create a folder for configuration headers, I usually name it _config_headers/
--
--          _config_headers/assimp/     <- config.h will be included as "assimp/config.h" so the assimp/ part is important
--          assimp.lua
--          assimp
--
--     2.2 Generate config.h and revision.h from assimp/code/config.h.in and assimp/revision.h.in and put them into _config_headers/assimp. (You can also just edit and rename them, that's what I usually end up doing.)
--
--          _config_headers/
--            assimp/
--              config.h
--              revision.h
--          assimp.lua
--          assimp
--
-- 3. Edit the 'files { ... }' and 'defines { ... }' depending on which importers/exporters you need. By default I enabled COLLADA, OBJ, FBX and ASSBIN (assimp binary, good for caching)

project '*'
	includedirs {
		'_config_headers/',
		'_config_headers/assimp/', -- Location of assimp's config.h, for a template see include/assimp/config.h.in
		'assimp/include/',
	}
project 'assimp'
	kind 'SharedLib'
	warnings 'Off'
	optimize 'Speed'

	includedirs {
		'_config_headers/',
		'_config_headers/assimp/',
		'assimp/',
		'assimp/contrib/',
		'assimp/contrib/irrXML/',
		'assimp/contrib/unzip/',
		'assimp/contrib/rapidjson/include/',
		'assimp/contrib/pugixml/src/',
		'assimp/contrib/zlib/',
		'assimp/contrib/utf8cpp/source',
		'assimp/code',
		'assimp/include',
	}
	files {
		-- Dependencies
		'assimp/contrib/unzip/**',
		'assimp/contrib/irrXML/**',
		'assimp/contrib/zlib/*',
		-- Common
		'assimp/code/Common/**',
		'assimp/code/PostProcessing/**',
		'assimp/code/Material/**',
		'assimp/code/CApi/**',
		'assimp/code/Geometry/**',
		-- Importers
		'assimp/code/AssetLib/IQM/**',
		'assimp/code/AssetLib/Assbin/**',

		'assimp/code/AssetLib/Collada/**',
		'assimp/code/AssetLib/Obj/**',
		-- 'assimp/code/AssetLib/Blender/**', 'assimp/contrib/poly2tri/poly2tri/**',
		'assimp/code/AssetLib/FBX/**',
		-- 'assimp/code/glTF2/**',
		-- 'assimp/code/glTF/**',
		'assimp/code/Assbin/**' -- Very fast format to parse/write, useful for caching
	}
	-- Importers
	defines {
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_3D_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_3DS_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_3MF_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_AC_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_AMF_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_ASE_IMPORTER',
		-- 'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_ASSBIN_IMPORTER'
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_B3D_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_BLEND_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_BVH_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_C4D_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_COB_IMPORTER',
		-- 'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_COLLADA_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_CSM_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_DXF_IMPORTER',
		-- 'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_FBX_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_GLTF_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_HMP_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_IFC_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_IRR_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_IRRMESH_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_LWO_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_LWS_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_M3D_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_MD2_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_MD3_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_MD5_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_MDC_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_MDL_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_MMD_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_MS3D_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_NDO_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_NFF_IMPORTER',
		-- 'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_OBJ_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_OFF_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_OGRE_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_OPENGEX_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_PLY_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_Q3BSP_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_Q3D_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_RAW_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_SIB_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_SMD_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_STEP_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_STL_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_TERRAGEN_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_X_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_X3D_IMPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_XGL_IMPORTER'
	}
	-- Exporters
	defines {
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_COLLADA_EXPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_X_EXPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_STEP_EXPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_OBJ_EXPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_STL_EXPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_PLY_EXPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_3DS_EXPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_GLTF_EXPORTER',
		-- 'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_ASSBIN_EXPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_ASSXML_EXPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_X3D_EXPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_FBX_EXPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_M3D_EXPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_3MF_EXPORTER',
		'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_ASSJSON_EXPORTER'
	}

Thanks for making this file, it simplifies the work alot.

I did have to make a few changes to work with the latest version of ASSIMP (as of this comment being left) that were pretty minor, it seems like they have added two new file types USD and pbrt so I just added the lines:

'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_USD_IMPORTER',
'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_PBRT_IMPORTER'

and

'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_USD_EXPORTER',
'ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_PBRT_EXPORTER'

In there respective places

I used this file and everything worked except when I tried to turn on the gltf importer. I did eventually get it to work though, I had to change these lines

'assimp/code/glTF/**',
'assimp/code/glTF2/**',

to

'assimp/code/AssetLib/glTF/**',
'assimp/code/AssetLib/glTF2/**',

I also had to set the cpp dialect to c++17 at the top of the file so that inline variables could compile

cppdialect "C++17"

And I also had to add this to the list of defines to fix errors created by glTFAssetWriter.inl

'RAPIDJSON_HAS_STDSTRING=1'

Thank you for creating this script, it would have taken much longer if I had to create it from scratch

Heyo, just wanted to add this here in case anyone trying to build with gcc stumbles upon this

For gcc, just add this define and it should work.

	filter "system:linux"
		defines
		{
			"HAVE_UNISTD_H"
		}  

The final Lua script that worked for me, just in case:

project "assimp"
    kind "StaticLib"
    language "C++"
    cppdialect "C++17"

    targetdir ("../../../Binaries/" .. OutputDir .. "/%{prj.name}")
    objdir ("../../../Intermediates/" .. OutputDir .. "/%{prj.name}")

    includedirs
    {
		"_config_headers/",
		"_config_headers/assimp/",
		".",
		"contrib/",
		"contrib/irrXML/",
		"contrib/unzip/",
		"contrib/rapidjson/include/",
		"contrib/pugixml/src/",
		"contrib/zlib/",
		"contrib/utf8cpp/source",
		"code",
		"include",
    }

    files
    {
		-- Dependencies
		"contrib/unzip/**",
		"contrib/irrXML/**",
		"contrib/zlib/*",
		-- Common
		"code/Common/**",
		"code/PostProcessing/**",
		"code/Material/**",
		"code/CApi/**",
		"code/Geometry/**",
		-- Importers
		"code/AssetLib/IQM/**",
		"code/AssetLib/Assbin/**",

		"code/AssetLib/Collada/**",
		"code/AssetLib/Obj/**",
		"code/AssetLib/FBX/**",

		"code/Assbin/**"
    }

    removefiles
	{
        "code/Exporter/**",
        "code/*Exporter.*",
        "code/*Export.*",
    }

    defines
    {
        "_CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS",
        "RAPIDJSON_HAS_STDSTRING=1",
        "ASSIMP_STATIC",
        "ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_EXPORT",
        "ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_USD_IMPORTER",
        "ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_PBRT_IMPORTER",
        "ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_3D_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_3DS_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_3MF_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_AC_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_AMF_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_ASE_IMPORTER",
		-- "ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_ASSBIN_IMPORTER"
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_B3D_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_BLEND_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_BVH_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_C4D_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_COB_IMPORTER",
		-- "ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_COLLADA_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_CSM_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_DXF_IMPORTER",
		-- "ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_FBX_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_GLTF_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_HMP_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_IFC_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_IRR_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_IRRMESH_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_LWO_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_LWS_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_M3D_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_MD2_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_MD3_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_MD5_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_MDC_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_MDL_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_MMD_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_MS3D_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_NDO_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_NFF_IMPORTER",
		-- "ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_OBJ_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_OFF_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_OGRE_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_OPENGEX_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_PLY_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_Q3BSP_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_Q3D_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_RAW_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_SIB_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_SMD_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_STEP_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_STL_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_TERRAGEN_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_X_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_X3D_IMPORTER",
		"ASSIMP_BUILD_NO_XGL_IMPORTER"
    }

	filter "system:linux"
		defines
		{
			"HAVE_UNISTD_H"
		}