Sphere

VTKEx/Cxx/GeometricObjects/Sphere

Description

vtkSphereSource object creates a sphere (represented by polygons) of specified radius centered at the origin.

The resolution (polygonal discretization) in both the latitude (phi) and longitude (theta) directions can be specified.

It also is possible to create partial spheres by specifying maximum phi and theta angles. By default, the surface tessellation of the sphere uses triangles; however you can set LatLongTessellation to produce a tessellation using quadrilaterals.

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

Sphere.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 <vtkNamedColors.h>
#include <vtkProperty.h>

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

  // Create a sphere
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkSphereSource> sphereSource = 
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkSphereSource>::New();
  sphereSource->SetCenter(0.0, 0.0, 0.0);
  sphereSource->SetRadius(5.0);
  // Make the surface smooth.
  sphereSource->SetPhiResolution(100);
  sphereSource->SetThetaResolution(100);

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper> mapper = 
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper>::New();
  mapper->SetInputConnection(sphereSource->GetOutputPort());

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor> actor = 
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor>::New();
  actor->SetMapper(mapper);
  actor->GetProperty()->SetColor(colors->GetColor3d("Cornsilk").GetData());

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

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

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

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.3 FATAL_ERROR)

project(Sphere)

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

Download and Build Sphere

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

cd Sphere/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:

./Sphere

WINDOWS USERS

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