VTK/Examples/Cxx/IO/ReadPolyData

This example reads a polygonal data (.vtp) file. An example data set can be found at VTKData/Data/SyntheticPolyline.vtp

ReadPolyData.cxx

#include <vtkXMLPolyDataReader.h>
#include <vtkSmartPointer.h>
#include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
#include <vtkActor.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
#include <vtkRenderer.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>

int main ( int argc, char *argv[] )
{
  // Parse command line arguments
  if(argc != 2)
    {
    std::cerr << "Usage: " << argv[0]
              << " Filename(.vtp)" << std::endl;
    return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

  std::string filename = argv[1];

  // Read all the data from the file
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkXMLPolyDataReader> reader =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkXMLPolyDataReader>::New();
  reader->SetFileName(filename.c_str());
  reader->Update();
  
  // Visualize
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper> mapper =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper>::New();
  mapper->SetInputConnection(reader->GetOutputPort());

  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);
  renderer->SetBackground(.3, .6, .3); // Background color green

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

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Please try the new VTKExamples website.

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)

PROJECT(ReadPolyData)

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

add_executable(ReadPolyData MACOSX_BUNDLE ReadPolyData.cxx)

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

Download and Build ReadPolyData

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

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

cd ReadPolyData/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:

./ReadPolyData

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.