How to install FLANN and pyflann on Windows

Question

How can I setup FLANN on Python (pyflann) on Windows? I know FLANN is now in openCV but I need the standalone version. The instructions here suggest compiling the FLANN binary or downloading a version from PointClouds but I can't use any of these.

I compiled from source but after I tried to run setup.py I got this error:

> 
C:\Python27\flann-1.8.4-src\src\python>python setup.py install
running install
running build
running build_py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "setup.py", line 27, in <module>
    package_data={'pyflann.lib': ['libflann.so', 'flann.dll', 'libflann.dll', 'libflann.dylib']},
  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\core.py", line 152, in setup dist.run_commands()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 953, in run_commands self.run_command(cmd)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 972, in run_command cmd_obj.run()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\command\install.py", line 563, in run self.run_command('build')
  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\cmd.py", line 326, in run_command self.distribution.run_command(command)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 972, in run_command cmd_obj.run()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\command\build.py", line 127, in run self.run_command(cmd_name)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\cmd.py", line 326, in run_command self.distribution.run_command(command)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\dist.py", line 971, in run_command cmd_obj.ensure_finalized()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\cmd.py", line 109, in ensure_finalized self.finalize_options()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\command\build_py.py", line 57, in finalize_options self.data_files = self.get_data_files()
  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\command\build_py.py", line 117, in get_data_files file[plen:] for file in self.find_data_files(package, src_dir)
  File "C:\Python27\lib\distutils\command\build_py.py", line 129, in find_data_files filelist = glob(os.path.join(src_dir, convert_path(pattern)))
  File "C:\Python27\lib\ntpath.py", line 96, in join assert len(path) > 0
TypeError: object of type 'NoneType' has no len()

Could anyone help me to solve this or direct me to another version of flann which can I simply install?

Answer 1

• Extract the zipped archive to C:\flann-1.8.4-src\.
• Open a cmd window as Administrator (right click > Run as Administrator)

Then do the following:

cd C:\flann-1.8.4-src\
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -G "NMake Makefiles"
nmake install

The nmake install line should get pyflann installed without needing to call setup.py separately.