VTK/Examples/Cxx/PolyData/TriangleColoredPoints

This example shows how by adding a color to each vertex of a triangle, the triangle's color will be smoothly varying between the colors of the vertices.

TriangleColoredPoints.cxx

#include <vtkVersion.h>
#include <vtkSmartPointer.h>
#include <vtkPoints.h>
#include <vtkXMLPolyDataWriter.h>
#include <vtkPolyData.h>
#include <vtkPointData.h>
#include <vtkCellArray.h>
#include <vtkTriangle.h>
#include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
#include <vtkActor.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
#include <vtkRenderer.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>

// For compatibility with new VTK generic data arrays
#ifdef vtkGenericDataArray_h
#define InsertNextTupleValue InsertNextTypedTuple
#endif

int main(int, char *[])
{
  // Setup points
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPoints> points =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPoints>::New();
  points->InsertNextPoint(1.0, 0.0, 0.0);
  points->InsertNextPoint(0.0, 0.0, 0.0);
  points->InsertNextPoint(0.0, 1.0, 0.0);

  // Define some colors
  unsigned char red[3] = {255, 0, 0};
  unsigned char green[3] = {0, 255, 0};
  unsigned char blue[3] = {0, 0, 255};

  // Setup the colors array
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkUnsignedCharArray> colors =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkUnsignedCharArray>::New();
  colors->SetNumberOfComponents(3);
  colors->SetName("Colors");

  // Add the three colors we have created to the array
  colors->InsertNextTupleValue(red);
  colors->InsertNextTupleValue(green);
  colors->InsertNextTupleValue(blue);

  // Create a triangle
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkCellArray> triangles =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkCellArray>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkTriangle> triangle =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkTriangle>::New();
  triangle->GetPointIds()->SetId(0, 0);
  triangle->GetPointIds()->SetId(1, 1);
  triangle->GetPointIds()->SetId(2, 2);
  triangles->InsertNextCell(triangle);

  // Create a polydata object and add everything to it
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyData> polydata =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyData>::New();
  polydata->SetPoints(points);
  polydata->SetPolys(triangles);
  polydata->GetPointData()->SetScalars(colors);

  // Visualize
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper> mapper =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper>::New();
#if VTK_MAJOR_VERSION <= 5
  mapper->SetInputConnection(polydata->GetProducerPort());
#else
  mapper->SetInputData(polydata);
#endif

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor> actor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor>::New();
  actor->SetMapper(mapper);

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer> renderer =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow> renderWindow =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow>::New();
  renderWindow->AddRenderer(renderer);
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor> renderWindowInteractor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor>::New();
  renderWindowInteractor->SetRenderWindow(renderWindow);

  renderer->AddActor(actor);

  renderWindow->Render();
  renderWindowInteractor->Start();

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Please try the new VTKExamples website.

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)

PROJECT(TriangleColoredPoints)

find_package(VTK REQUIRED)
include(${VTK_USE_FILE})

add_executable(TriangleColoredPoints MACOSX_BUNDLE TriangleColoredPoints.cxx)

if(VTK_LIBRARIES)
  target_link_libraries(TriangleColoredPoints ${VTK_LIBRARIES})
else()
  target_link_libraries(TriangleColoredPoints vtkHybrid vtkWidgets)
endif()

Download and Build TriangleColoredPoints

Click here to download TriangleColoredPoints. and its CMakeLists.txt file.

Once the tarball TriangleColoredPoints.tar has been downloaded and extracted,

cd TriangleColoredPoints/build 

• If VTK is installed:

cmake ..

• If VTK is not installed but compiled on your system, you will need to specify the path to your VTK build:

cmake -DVTK_DIR:PATH=/home/me/vtk_build ..

Build the project:

make

and run it:

./TriangleColoredPoints

WINDOWS USERS PLEASE NOTE: Be sure to add the VTK bin directory to your path. This will resolve the VTK dll's at run time.