CGAL users discussion list

[Michel Audette <>]

Dear CGAL developers and users,

Sorry if this appeared before, but I just rejoined CGAL users, and
I did not see my message on the list, so this submission may have gone
through before my membership.

I'd like to incorporate some CGAL functions into my research, but I
would like to find out more about licensing.

The website says that some classes are LGPL and some are QPL. I don't
plan on modifying the source code, but use it as is, like a black box.
Is the user given the choice for each, or are the licences set as one
or the other on a case-by-case basis?

Moreover, I'm interested in the 3D surface mesh, and would like to
find out more... Does it produce a mesh that is water-tight? Moroever,
it seems not to produce slivers (triangles with small edges), which
has important implications for finite elements. Is this shape quality
based on a parameter of the algorithm, and does this high quality come
at a price in terms of distance to the underlying boundary?

Finally, a former student of mine used ellipsoid approximation in the
past, I believe Approximate_min_ellipsoid_d .

I would be interested in the licences of both of these. Can I use the
code freely in both of these cases?

Best wishes,

Michel

--
Michel Audette, Ph.D.
R & D Engineer,
Kitware Inc.,
Chapel Hill, N.C.