Clever.. so you mean I would derive a vtkMetaballs from vtkImplicitFunction that basically had 1 user function "AddMetaball(float position[3], float radius)". Then all i'll need is to override the EvaluateFunction and EvaluateGradient to return the correct value, right?
<br><br>wow.. That's nowhere near as complicated as I was expecting to have to do :) Thanks!<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 1/26/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Goodwin Lawlor</b> <<a href="mailto:goodwin.lawlor@ucd.ie">
goodwin.lawlor@ucd.ie</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Randall Hand wrote:<br>> I'm curious if there is any way in VTK to do a create a MetaBall-type
<br>> dataset. Example of metaballs can be found here:<br>> <a href="http://www.corelmag.com/1103/overview/Metaball_Modeling.html">http://www.corelmag.com/1103/overview/Metaball_Modeling.html</a><br>> <<a href="http://www.corelmag.com/1103/overview/Metaball_Modeling.html">
http://www.corelmag.com/1103/overview/Metaball_Modeling.html</a>><br>><br>> Basically I want to be able to define points in 3d-space along with a<br>> Radius for each, and then have a vtkPolyData (or something like it)
<br>> created from the results of the Metaball surface. Is there any way to<br>> do this in VTK? I can get a rough approximation by using a vtkGlyph3d<br>> and mapping a vtkSphereSource at each point, but that leaves
<br>> intersecting geometry without the smooth features that come from a<br>> Metaballs type algorithm.<br><br>Hi Randall,<br><br>This looks a job for a vtkImplicitFunction... maybe called vtkMetaballs.<br>vtkMetaballs would define a centre, a radius, and a potential function
<br>for each metaball you add to the system. Then, just sample it with<br>vtkSampleFunction, and create the surface with a vtkContourFilter.<br><br>Have a look at this paper: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/7fdox">http://tinyurl.com/7fdox
</a><br><br>hth<br><br>Goodwin<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>This is the private VTK discussion list.<br>Please keep messages on-topic. Check the FAQ at: <a href="http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK_FAQ">
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<br>-- <br>Randall Hand<br>Visualization Scientist, <br>ERDC-MSRC Vicksburg, MS<br>Homepage: <a href="http://www.yeraze.com">http://www.yeraze.com</a>