Arrow

VTKEx/Cxx/GeometricObjects/Arrow

Description¶

vtkArrowSource object appends a cylinder to a cone to form an arrow.

The shaft base is always at (0,0,0). The arrow tip is always at (1,0,0). If "Invert" is true, then the ends are flipped i.e. tip is at (0,0,0) while base is at (1, 0, 0).

The resolution of the cone and shaft can be set and default to 6.

The radius of the cone and shaft can be set and default to 0.03 and 0.1. The length of the tip can also be set, and defaults to 0.35.

Code¶

Arrow.cxx

#include <vtkActor.h>
#include <vtkArrowSource.h>
#include <vtkNamedColors.h>
#include <vtkPolyData.h>
#include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
#include <vtkRenderer.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>
#include <vtkSmartPointer.h>

int main(int, char *[])
{
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkNamedColors> colors =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkNamedColors>::New();

  // Create an arrow.
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkArrowSource> arrowSource =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkArrowSource>::New();
  //arrowSource->SetShaftRadius(1.0);
  //arrowSource->SetTipLength(1.0);
  arrowSource->Update();

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

  // Visualize
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer> renderer =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow> renderWindow =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow>::New();
  renderWindow->SetWindowName("Arrow");
  renderWindow->AddRenderer(renderer);
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor> renderWindowInteractor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor>::New();
  renderWindowInteractor->SetRenderWindow(renderWindow);

  renderer->AddActor(actor);
  renderer->SetBackground(colors->GetColor3d("MidnightBlue").GetData());

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

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

CMakeLists.txt¶

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.3 FATAL_ERROR)

project(Arrow)

find_package(VTK COMPONENTS 
  vtkCommonColor
  vtkCommonCore
  vtkCommonDataModel
  vtkFiltersSources
  vtkInteractionStyle
  vtkRenderingContextOpenGL2
  vtkRenderingCore
  vtkRenderingFreeType
  vtkRenderingGL2PSOpenGL2
  vtkRenderingOpenGL2 QUIET)
if (NOT VTK_FOUND)
  message("Skipping Arrow: ${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(Arrow MACOSX_BUNDLE Arrow.cxx )
  target_link_libraries(Arrow PRIVATE ${VTK_LIBRARIES})
else ()
  # include all components
  add_executable(Arrow MACOSX_BUNDLE Arrow.cxx )
  target_link_libraries(Arrow PRIVATE ${VTK_LIBRARIES})
  # vtk_module_autoinit is needed
  vtk_module_autoinit(
    TARGETS Arrow
    MODULES ${VTK_LIBRARIES}
    )
endif ()

Download and Build Arrow¶

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

cd Arrow/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:

./Arrow