New CGAL versions: 5.5.5, 5.6.2, 6.0, and 6.0.1

The CGAL Open Source Project is pleased to announce the recent releases of CGAL versions 5.5.5, 5.6.2, 6.0, and 6.0.1.

CGAL version 6.0

CGAL version 6.0 was released on September 27, 2024. Following the discovery of early issues, version 6.0.1 was subsequently released on October 22, 2024.

This version is a major release, with many new features and improvements.

General changes

• C++17 Requirement: CGAL 6.0 requires a C++17 compatible compiler.
• GMP/MPFR Optional: GMP/MPFR are no longer mandatory; Boost.Multiprecision can be used.
• Qt6 Demos: All demos are now based on Qt6.
• Polyhedral Surface: The demo has been renamed to “CGAL Lab” and moved to its own directory in demo/Lab/.

New Packages

• Kinetic Space Partition: Partition of the space from planar input shapes.
• Kinetic Surface Reconstruction: Reconstructs surfaces from point clouds.
• Basic Viewer: Interactive visualization for various CGAL packages.
• Polygon Repair: Algorithms to repair 2D polygons and multipolygons.

Breaking Changes

• CMake Changes: UseCGAL.cmake removed; use CGAL::CGAL target instead.
• Kernel: Replaced boost::variant with std::variant and boost::optional with std::optional in the intersection functions.

Enhancements

• AABB Tree: Now supports 2D and 3D primitives.

See the announcement of CGAL version 6.0.1 for more details.

Bug-fix releases

• CGAL version 5.5.5 has been published. This is the last bug-fix release for CGAL-5.5.
• CGAL version 5.6.2 has been published. This is the second bug-fix release for CGAL-5.6.

The development of CGAL will now focus on the future CGAL-6.1 (planned for late 2025), with bug-fixes regularly backported to the branches for CGAL-5.6.x and CGAL-6.0.x.