ReadTextFile

VTKEx/Cxx/IO/ReadTextFile

Description¶

This example takes a plain text file of coordinates and reads them into a vtkPoints, which is then put into a vtkPolyData and displayed on the screen using a vtkVertexGlyphFilter.

An example file may look like: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Note

for a simpler way to read such a file, see SimplePointsReader.

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¶

ReadTextFile.cxx

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

#include <sstream>

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
  // Verify input arguments
  if ( argc != 2 )
  {
    std::cout << "Usage: " << argv[0]
              << " Filename(.xyz)" << std::endl;
    return EXIT_FAILURE;
  }
  // Get all data from the file
  std::string filename = argv[1];
  std::ifstream filestream(filename.c_str());

  std::string line;
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPoints> points =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPoints>::New();

  while(std::getline(filestream, line))
  {
    double x, y, z;
    std::stringstream linestream;
    linestream << line;
    linestream >> x >> y >> z;

    points->InsertNextPoint(x, y, z);
  }

  filestream.close();

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyData> polyData =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyData>::New();

  polyData->SetPoints(points);

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkVertexGlyphFilter> glyphFilter =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkVertexGlyphFilter>::New();
  glyphFilter->SetInputData(polyData);
  glyphFilter->Update();

  // Visualize

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

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor> actor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor>::New();
  actor->SetMapper(mapper);

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer> renderer =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer>::New();
  renderer->AddActor(actor);
  renderer->SetBackground(.3, .6, .3); // Background color green

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow> renderWindow =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow>::New();
  renderWindow->AddRenderer(renderer);

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

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

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

CMakeLists.txt¶

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.3 FATAL_ERROR)

project(ReadTextFile)

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

Download and Build ReadTextFile¶

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

cd ReadTextFile/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:

./ReadTextFile

WINDOWS USERS

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