The goal of the CGAL Open Source Project is to provide easy access to efficient and reliable geometric algorithms in the form of a C++ library.The Computational Geometry Algorithms Library offers data structures and algorithms like triangulations, Voronoi diagrams, Polygons, Cell Complexes and Polyhedra, arrangements of curves, mesh generation, geometry processing, convex hull algorithms, to name just a few.

All these data structures and algorithms operate on geometric objects like points and segments, and perform geometric tests on them. These objects and predicates are regrouped in CGAL Kernels.

Finally, the Support Library offers geometric object generators and spatial sorting functions, as well as a matrix search framework and a solver for linear and quadratic programs. It further offers interfaces to third party software such as the GUI libraries Qt, Geomview, and the Boost Graph Library.

Demos and Examples

In the distribution of the library you find the two directories demo and examples. They contain subdirectories for the CGAL packages. The demos use third party libraries for the graphical user interface. The examples don't have this dependency and most examples are refered to in the user manual.

License

CGAL is distributed under a dual-license scheme. CGAL can be used together with Open Source software free of charge. Using CGAL in other contexts can be done by obtaining a commercial license from GeometryFactory. For more details see the License page.

Manuals for the Previous Releases

For releases >= 4.2, visit http://doc.cgal.org/X.Y

For releases X.Y, with 3.1 <= X.Y <= 4.1 visit http://doc.cgal.org/Manual/X.Y/doc_html/cgal_manual/packages.html