Skip to content


# ColorAnActor

VTKEx/Cxx/Visualization/ColorAnActor

### Description

This example creates a red sphere.

Other languages

See (Java)

Question

If you have a simple question about this example contact us at VTKExProject If your question is more complex and may require extended discussion, please use the VTK Discourse Forum

### Code

ColorAnActor.cxx

    #include <vtkSphereSource.h>
    #include <vtkPolyData.h>
    #include <vtkSmartPointer.h>
    #include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
    #include <vtkActor.h>
    #include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
    #include <vtkRenderer.h>
    #include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>
    #include <vtkProperty.h>

    int main(int, char *[])
    {
      //Create a sphere
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkSphereSource> sphereSource =
        vtkSmartPointer<vtkSphereSource>::New();
      sphereSource->Update();

      //Create a mapper and actor
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper> mapper =
        vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper>::New();
      mapper->SetInputConnection(sphereSource->GetOutputPort());
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor> actor = vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor>::New();
      actor->SetMapper(mapper);

      //Set the color of the sphere
      actor->GetProperty()->SetColor(1.0, 0.0, 0.0); //(R,G,B)

      //Create a renderer, render window, and interactor
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer> renderer =
        vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer>::New();
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow> renderWindow =
        vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow>::New();
      renderWindow->AddRenderer(renderer);
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor> renderWindowInteractor =
        vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor>::New();
      renderWindowInteractor->SetRenderWindow(renderWindow);

      //Add the actor to the scene
      renderer->AddActor(actor);
      renderer->SetBackground(1,1,1); // Background color white

      //Render and interact
      renderWindow->Render();
      renderWindowInteractor->Start();

      return EXIT_SUCCESS;
    }

### CMakeLists.txt

    cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.3 FATAL_ERROR)

    project(ColorAnActor)

    find_package(VTK COMPONENTS
      vtkCommonCore
      vtkCommonDataModel
      vtkFiltersSources
      vtkInteractionStyle
      vtkRenderingContextOpenGL2
      vtkRenderingCore
      vtkRenderingFreeType
      vtkRenderingGL2PSOpenGL2
      vtkRenderingOpenGL2 QUIET)
    if (NOT VTK_FOUND)
      message("Skipping ColorAnActor: ${VTK_NOT_FOUND_MESSAGE}")
      return ()
    endif()
    message (STATUS "VTK_VERSION: ${VTK_VERSION}")
    if (VTK_VERSION VERSION_LESS "8.90.0")
      # old system
      include(${VTK_USE_FILE})
      add_executable(ColorAnActor MACOSX_BUNDLE ColorAnActor.cxx )
      target_link_libraries(ColorAnActor PRIVATE ${VTK_LIBRARIES})
    else ()
      # include all components
      add_executable(ColorAnActor MACOSX_BUNDLE ColorAnActor.cxx )
      target_link_libraries(ColorAnActor PRIVATE ${VTK_LIBRARIES})
      # vtk_module_autoinit is needed
      vtk_module_autoinit(
        TARGETS ColorAnActor
        MODULES ${VTK_LIBRARIES}
        )
    endif ()

### Download and Build ColorAnActor

Click here to download ColorAnActor and its CMakeLists.txt file. Once the tarball ColorAnActor.tar has been downloaded and extracted,

    cd ColorAnActor/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:

    ./ColorAnActor

WINDOWS USERS

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