Geant4 on Windows 7

 Introduction

I assume that, like me, at this stage you also have no idea how to install Geant4.
In this blog I will mention what softwares you will need before hand? how to obtain and install those? And then how to install Geant4.

Geant4 is well tested on 32bit packages, therefore I am installing the below mentioned packages of 32bit.

Stage-1
Necessary Softwares you will need to install before going about Geant4 installation -

         1] Visual Studio 2010 (or higher):

         The installation is pretty straight forward. However note that its a commercial software. Ask your institution if they can obtain the license for you.

         2] Qt4.8.6 :
         Obtain the windows installer from qt-project site archive. Easy clicks installation.
       
         3] Cmake (32bit):
          http://www.cmake.org/download/  Easy clicks installation. While installation, make sure you tic mark to "add path to PATH variable".


Stage-2
Softwares required prehand to have optional components of Geant4 -

Strongly recommended to install through binary .exe installers if possible.

           1] GDML support: GDML means Geometry Data in XML format
So, you can decide, if you want to have GDML support then you need to first install -

Binary distribution for Xerces-C++ headers and library. Xerces-C++ makes it easy to give your application the ability to read and write XML data.

In Simple steps:
         (1) Download the correct zip file as per (a) 32bit (32bit is well tested for Geant4) and (b) the Visual Studio version (2010) you have installed.
         (2) Unzip the file. Move it to any other location where you will not touch it.
         (3) Go to /bin folder within it, and copy the full path to /bin folder like -
C:\xerces-c-3.1.1-x86-windows-vc-10.0\bin
         (4) Open Windows explorer and type path variable , click on change environment variables for system
         (5) Locate PATH variable and click on edit. At the end of the values put a ; and paste the copied path here.
Done!

Download page - http://xerces.apache.org/xerces-c/download.cgi
Installation instructions - http://xerces.apache.org/xerces-c/install-3.html#Windows

         2] OpenGL headers and library: You need this for visualization tools. Most probably on the latest laptops and computers the OpenGL is already installed with the appropriate graphics drivers by Microsoft.

Stage-3
Building and installing Geant4 on Windows

Follow the procedure mentioned here -

http://geant4.web.cern.ch/geant4/UserDocumentation/UsersGuides/InstallationGuide/html/ch02s02.html

Tips:
           1] Under the parent Geant4 folder which contains the folder "geant4_10_00_p03" source,  create three more folders - "geant4_10_00_p03-build", "geant4_10_00_p03-install", and "geant4_10_00_p03-DATA"

           2] In Cmake-gui
                  Check on :

                Name                  Value

               CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX = path/to/Geant4/geant4_10__00_p03-install

               GEANT4_INSTALL_DATA : Selected

               GEANT4_INSTALL_DATADIR : path/to/geant4_10_00_p03-DATA

               GEANT4_USE_GDML : Selected

               GEANT4_USE_OPENGL_WIN32 : Selected

               GEANT4_USE_QT : Selected

And follow the above procedure.

            3] When opening the Visual Studio, open it as Administer.


            4] You may also use Rapid Environment Editor to create the new Geant4 related environment variable neatly.

It gives - ERROR LNK2019
Build failed.