Visualization Toolkit (VTK) Installation and usage

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Installation

Package

Most packages are available in the package install systems, e.g. on Ubuntu `vtk6`, `vtk6-examples`, `libvtk6.2`, `libvtk6-dev`, `vtkdata`

Downloads are also available from the VTK home page.

Source code

The Gate github repository can be cloned like that 

   https://github.com/Kitware/VTK

This will bring you to the master branch, tags can be checked out like this 

   git checkout v8.0.1

Compilation

Make a build directory and execute in this directory `cmake <SOURCEDIR>`. Some interesting switches can be added with `-DSWITCH`

  • `CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX`
  • `VTK_WRAP_TCL` wrapper code for TCL
  • `VTK_WRAP_PYTHON` wrapper code for Python
  • `VTK_FORBID_DOWNLOADS` skip downloading of test data
  • `VTK_RENDERING_BACKEND` default OpenGL2
  • `BUILD_EXAMPLES` set to `ON` if examples should be built

Example session 

   mkdir build
   cd build
   cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../install -DVTK_WRAP_PYTHON=ON -DVTK_FORBID_DOWNLOADS=ON
   make install

Running

Make sure that the `bin` and `lib` directories of the installation are part of `PATH` and `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` respectively, e.g. 

   export PATH=/the_installation_directory/bin:$PATH
   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/the_installation_directory/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

TCL bindings

Start `vtk` and get the interactive prompt. Or run one script of the examples directly, e.g. 

   vtk Examples/Tutorial/Step1/Tcl/Cone.tcl

Python bindings

Set `PYTHONPATH` to enable Python to find the available modules 

   PYTHONPATH=$VTK_install/lib/pythonx.x/site-packages

Run a script directly 

   python Examples/Tutorial/Step1/Python/Cone.py

Interactive Python

Run either `python` or `ipython` without arguments to come to the prompt. `ipython` can be recommended for interactive sessions.

`ipython` keeps a nice history of the commands, try `history`, option `-g` displays also entries from previous sessions.

Example: run command sequence in interactive mode (simple copy & paste) 

   source = vtk.vtkPlaneSource()
   mapper = vtk.vtkPolyDataMapper()
   mapper.SetInputConnection(source.GetOutputPort())
   actor = vtk.vtkActor()
   actor.SetMapper(mapper)
   renderer = vtk.vtkRenderer()
   renderer.SetBackground(0.0, 0.0, 0.0)
   renderer.AddActor(actor)
   render_window = vtk.vtkRenderWindow()
   render_window.SetWindowName("Simple VTK scene")
   render_window.SetSize(400, 400)
   render_window.AddRenderer(renderer)
   # Create an interactor
   interactor = vtk.vtkRenderWindowInteractor()
   interactor.SetRenderWindow(render_window)
   # Initialize the interactor and start the
   # rendering loop
   interactor.Initialize()
   render_window.Render()
   interactor.Start()
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