# getting/building libs for r/w vtk and xdmf geometry formats
**URL:** https://discourse.vtk.org/t/getting-building-libs-for-r-w-vtk-and-xdmf-geometry-formats/2720
**Category:** Support
**Tags:** file-formats
**Created:** [February 28, 2020, 9:25am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/getting-building-libs-for-r-w-vtk-and-xdmf-geometry-formats/2720 "2020-02-28T09:25:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kcris](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/kcris)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2020, 9:25am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/getting-building-libs-for-r-w-vtk-and-xdmf-geometry-formats/2720/1 "2020-02-28T09:25:29Z")
Hi,
I plan to use vtk libraries for reading/writing various vtk geometry formats (vtk text formats, xdms formats).
Vtk sourcecode is huge and I am a bit lost, there are literally hundreds of modules.
And I am just getting started.
1. Which are the libs I can use for reading/writing vtk text/binary geometry formats?
2. How do I get/build xdmf libraries?
I tried to build vtk-8 sources myself and xdmf libs are not built by default.
Can you please point me to the correct settings or to some existing docs about this?
3. on the other hand, I found a separate xdmf library on the kitware site and I am not sure which lib to use for xdms: the separate one or the version that is included in vtk itself
[https://gitlab.kitware.com/xdmf/xdmf](https://gitlab.kitware.com/xdmf/xdmf)
Thanks a lot
Chris
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### Author:  [@ben.boeckel](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/ben.boeckel)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2020, 5:06pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/getting-building-libs-for-r-w-vtk-and-xdmf-geometry-formats/2720/2 "2020-03-16T17:06:34Z")
If you look at the module setting list (for VTK 8, `Module_vtkFoo`, and for VTK 8.90+, `VTK_MODULE_ENABLE_VTK_Foo`), there should be an option where `Foo` is `IOXdmf2` and `IOXdmf3`). Setting that option to `ON` (VTK 8) or `YES` (VTK 8.90+) will ensure that it gets built.