Axes

VTKEx/Cxx/GeometricObjects/Axes

Description

This example shows how to position an vtkAxesActor in 3D. Notice that position and orientation of the vtkAxesActor is done with a user transform.

Seealso

DisplayCoordinateAxes.

Other languages

See (Python), (CSharp)

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

Axes.cxx

#include <vtkActor.h>
#include <vtkAxesActor.h>
#include <vtkCamera.h>
#include <vtkCaptionActor2D.h>
#include <vtkNamedColors.h>
#include <vtkPolyData.h>
#include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
#include <vtkRenderer.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>
#include <vtkSmartPointer.h>
#include <vtkSphereSource.h>
#include <vtkTextProperty.h>
#include <vtkTransform.h>

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

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkSphereSource> sphereSource =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkSphereSource>::New();
  sphereSource->SetCenter(0.0, 0.0, 0.0);
  sphereSource->SetRadius(0.5);

  //create a mapper
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper> sphereMapper =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper>::New();
  sphereMapper->SetInputConnection(sphereSource->GetOutputPort());

  // create an actor
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor> sphereActor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor>::New();
  sphereActor->SetMapper(sphereMapper);

  // a renderer and render window
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer> renderer =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow> renderWindow =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow>::New();
  renderWindow->SetWindowName("Axes");
  renderWindow->AddRenderer(renderer);
  renderWindow->SetSize(300,300);

  // an interactor
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor> renderWindowInteractor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor>::New();
  renderWindowInteractor->SetRenderWindow(renderWindow);

  // add the actors to the scene
  renderer->AddActor(sphereActor);
  renderer->SetBackground(colors->GetColor3d("SlateGray").GetData());

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkTransform> transform =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkTransform>::New();
  transform->Translate(1.0, 0.0, 0.0);

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkAxesActor> axes =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkAxesActor>::New();

  // The axes are positioned with a user transform
  axes->SetUserTransform(transform);

  // properties of the axes labels can be set as follows
  // this sets the x axis label to red
  // axes->GetXAxisCaptionActor2D()->GetCaptionTextProperty()->SetColor(
  //   colors->GetColor3d("Red").GetData());

  // the actual text of the axis label can be changed:
  // axes->SetXAxisLabelText("test");

  renderer->AddActor(axes);

  renderer->GetActiveCamera()->Azimuth(50);
  renderer->GetActiveCamera()->Elevation(-30);

  renderer->ResetCamera();
  renderWindow->Render();

  // begin mouse interaction
  renderWindowInteractor->Start();

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.3 FATAL_ERROR)

project(Axes)

find_package(VTK COMPONENTS 
  vtkvtkCommonColor
  vtkvtkCommonCore
  vtkvtkCommonDataModel
  vtkvtkCommonTransforms
  vtkvtkFiltersSources
  vtkvtkInteractionStyle
  vtkvtkRenderingAnnotation
  vtkvtkRenderingContextOpenGL2
  vtkvtkRenderingCore
  vtkvtkRenderingFreeType
  vtkvtkRenderingGL2PSOpenGL2
  vtkvtkRenderingOpenGL2 QUIET)
if (NOT VTK_FOUND)
  message("Skipping Axes: ${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(Axes MACOSX_BUNDLE Axes.cxx )
  target_link_libraries(Axes PRIVATE ${VTK_LIBRARIES})
else ()
  # include all components
  add_executable(Axes MACOSX_BUNDLE Axes.cxx )
  target_link_libraries(Axes PRIVATE ${VTK_LIBRARIES})
  # vtk_module_autoinit is needed
  vtk_module_autoinit(
    TARGETS Axes
    MODULES ${VTK_LIBRARIES}
    )
endif ()

Download and Build Axes

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

cd Axes/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:

./Axes

WINDOWS USERS

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