diff --git a/demo/CMakeLists.txt b/demo/CMakeLists.txt
index 38fc30be902b9341bc9698509038767270d76c8a..ea9bc8a61270b5aadb59b0dc2e6b0bcd20653156 100644
--- a/demo/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/demo/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -17,3 +17,6 @@ foreach(s ${sources})
   add_executable(${swe} ${s})
   target_link_libraries(${swe} ${BASIS_LIBS})
 endforeach(s)
+
+#create the output dir
+file(MAKE_DIRECTORY output)