vtkInterface is a VTK helper module that takes a different approach on interfacing with VTK through numpy and direct array access. This module simplifies mesh creation and plotting by adding functionality to existing VTK objects.
This module can be used for scientific plotting for presentations and research papers as well as a supporting module for other mesh dependent Python modules.
Refer to the main documentation page for detailed installation and usage details.
If you have a working copy of VTK, installation is simply:
pip install vtkInterfaceYou can also visit PyPi or GitHub to download the source.
See the Installation for more details.
Loading a mesh is trivial:
import vtkInterface
mesh = vtkInterface.LoadMesh('airplane.ply')
mesh.Plot(color='orange')
In fact, the code to generate the previous screenshot was created with:
mesh.Plot(screenshot='airplane.png', color='orange')The points and faces from the mesh are directly accessible as a numpy array:
print mesh.GetNumpyPoints()
#[[ 896.99401855 48.76010132 82.26560211]
# [ 906.59301758 48.76010132 80.74520111]
# [ 907.53900146 55.49020004 83.65809631]
# ...,
# [ 806.66497803 627.36297607 5.11482 ]
# [ 806.66497803 654.43200684 7.51997995]
# [ 806.66497803 681.5369873 9.48744011]]
print mesh.GetNumpyFaces()
#[[ 0 1 2]
# [ 0 2 3]
# [ 4 5 1]
# ...,
# [1324 1333 1323]
# [1325 1216 1334]
# [1325 1334 1324]]This example creates a simple surface grid and plots the resulting grid and its curvature:
import vtkInterface
# Make data
import numpy as np
X = np.arange(-10, 10, 0.25)
Y = np.arange(-10, 10, 0.25)
X, Y = np.meshgrid(X, Y)
R = np.sqrt(X**2 + Y**2)
Z = np.sin(R)
# Create and plot structured grid
sgrid = vtkInterface.GenStructSurf(X, Y, Z)
sgrid.Plot()
# Plot mean curvature as well
surf.PlotCurvature()
Generating a structured grid is a one liner in this module, and the points from the resulting surface are also a numpy array:
surf.GetNumpyPoints()
#[[-10. -10. 0.99998766]
# [ -9.75 -10. 0.98546793]
# [ -9.5 -10. 0.9413954 ]
# ...,
# [ 9.25 9.75 0.76645876]
# [ 9.5 9.75 0.86571785]
# [ 9.75 9.75 0.93985707]]This example shows the versatility of the plotting object by generating a moving gif:
import vtkInterface
import numpy as np
# Make data
X = np.arange(-10, 10, 0.25)
Y = np.arange(-10, 10, 0.25)
X, Y = np.meshgrid(X, Y)
R = np.sqrt(X**2 + Y**2)
Z = np.sin(R)
# Create and structured surface
sgrid = vtkInterface.GenStructSurf(X, Y, Z)
# Make deep copy of points
pts = sgrid.GetNumpyPoints(deep=True)
# Start a plotter object and set the scalars to the Z height
plobj = vtkInterface.PlotClass()
plobj.AddMesh(sgrid, scalars=Z.ravel())
plobj.Plot(autoclose=False)
# Open a gif
plobj.OpenGif('wave.gif')
# Update Z and write a frame for each updated position
nframe = 15
for phase in np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi, nframe + 1)[:nframe]:
Z = np.sin(R + phase)
pts[:, -1] = Z.ravel()
plobj.UpdateCoordinates(pts)
plobj.UpdateScalars(Z.ravel())
plobj.WriteFrame()
# Close movie and delete object
plobj.Close()
del plobj